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THE MOSCOW ART 
THEATRE SERIES 
OF RUSSIAN PLAYS 

DIRECTION OF MORRIS GEST 
Edited by OLIVER M. SAYLER 

VOLUME IV 

THE 
THREE SISTERS 

A DRAMA IN FOUR ACTS 

BY 
ANTON TCHEKHOFF 

English translation by 
JENNY COVAN 



NEW YORK 
BRENTANOS 

PUBLISHERS 



Copyright, 1922, by MORRIS GEST 
All rights reserved 



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INTRODUCTION 



Like "The Cherry Orchard," which it preceded to the 
stage by three years, Anton TchekhofPs "The Three 
Sisters" is a veracious and illuminating cross section of 
Russian life among the provincial intelligentsia prior to 
the Revolution of 1905. Traces of this dull, drab, 
monotonous existence, in which smoldering passion flares 
up fitfully, survived that upheaval and as before became 
one of the causes of the contemporary Revolution. Ap- 
parently, that life is obliterated to-day, and so even if 
"The Three Sisters" had no compelling human appeal, 
it would be invaluable as an artist's eye-witness account 
of a departed epoch. 

But it has a compelling human appeal, with its re- 
current refrain of pensive ambition thwarted at every 
turn, and thwarted, too, by characteristics existing along- 
side the ambition rather than by outside influences. 

That appeal will be apparent to the reader and in 
highly intensified degree to the spectator of the Moscow 
Art Theatre's searchingly intimate interpretation of the 
play. It is interesting to recount here the human side of 
the composition and production of "The Three Sisters." 

This deeply moving drama of suppressed longings was 
the first of TchekhofPs plays to be w r ritten expressly for 
the theatre which had found its own function through 
opening for him a channel on the Russian stage. "The 
Sea-Gull" had merely been rescued from previous failure 
in Petrograd. "Uncle Vanya" had been snatched by 
Stanislavsky from timid and over-fastidious hands at the 
Small Imperial Theatre. "The Three Sisters," on the 
other hand, was composed with Stanislavsky and his 
artists particularly in mind as its interpreters, but only 
after extraordinary proof to the playwright that the 
Moscow Art Theatre was his legitimate outlet. 

Ill health had kept Tchekhoff in the Crimea, pre- 



iv INTRODUCTION. 

venting him from seeing the Art Theatre's productions 
of "The Sea-Gull" and "Uncle Vanya." He only half- 
believed the rumors of their success. To convince him, 
therefore, and to elicit the desired new manuscript, the 
entire company journeyed southward at the close of the 
Moscow season in the spring of 1900 and gave special 
performances in Sevastopol and Yalta for TchekhofTs 
benefit. 

"The Three Sisters" was written at Yalta in the 
summer of 1900, rewritten in Moscow in early autumn, 
read to the actors for the first time in the presence of 
the author, placed in rehearsal and produced February 
13 (our calendar), 1901. During rehearsals, Tchekhoff 
fled with misgivings to Nice and as the date of the 
premiere approached, he concealed his whereabouts in 
Naples, without the faintest hope that the play would 
achieve the success it did. 

Still, to this period belongs the most intimate relation- 
ship achieved between playhouse and playwright. 
Tchekhoff's advice was sought and given on matters per- 
taining to the rest of the repertory. And it was at this 
time that the company's leading actress, Mme. Knipper, 
became his wife. 

Some one has said that in his methods as a producer, 
Stanislavsky has heeded the dicta of Diderot: "No 
emotion can be interpreted with success except in a mod- 
erate and chastened form"; and "Restraint is essential 
in all artistic interpretation." Restraint, minimization, the 
loosening of the tension and the sharpening of the atten- 
tion — these, assuredly, are the secrets not only of the pro- 
ducer of "The Three Sisters" but of its author, as well. 

It is significant to note in conclusion that to-day, 
twenty-two years after its first performance, five of the 
most important roles in "The Three Sisters" are still 
played by the same actors who originally embodied them 
and found their inspiration in the unobtrusive but pene- 
trating guidance of the playwright himself. 

The Editor. 



CAST OF CHARACTERS. 

Andrei Sergeievitch Prozoroff. 
Natalia Ivanovna (Natasha) — 

His fiancee, later his wife. 
Olga 

Masha VHis sisters. 
Irina 
Fyodor Ilyitch Kuligin — 

High school teacher; married to Masha. 
Alexander Ignateievitch Vershinin — 

Lieutenant-Colonel in charge of a battery. 
Nikolai Lvovitch Tuzenbach — 

Baron, Lieutenant in the army. 
Vassily Vassilievitch Solyony — Captain. 
Ivan Romanovitch Tchebutikin — Army doctor. 
Alexei Petrovitch Fedotik — Second lieutenant. 
Vladimir Carlovitch Rode — Second lientenant. 
Ferapont — 

Door-keeper at local council offices, an old man. 
Anfisa — Nurse. 

The action takes place in a provincial town. 



ACT ONE. 

In Prozoroff's home. A sitting-room with pillars; 
behind is seen a large living-room. It is midday, outside 
the sun is shining brightly. In the living-room the table 
is being laid for lunch. 

Olga, in the regulation blue dress of a teacher at a 
girVs high school, is walking about correcting exercise 
books; Masha, in a black dress, her hat in her lap, sits and 
reads a book; Irina, in white, stands at one side, deep in 
thought. 

Olga. Father died just a year ago, on the fifth of May, 
your birthday, Irina. It was very cold and it snowed. I 
thought I would never survive it, and you fainted dead 
away. Now a year has gone by and we are already 
thinking of it without pain, and you are dressed in white 
and you seem cheerful. [Clock strikes twelve] And the 
clock struck just the same way then. [Pause] I remem- 
ber that there was music at the funeral, and they fired 
a volley across the grave. He was a Brigadier-General 
yet there were few people present. Of course, it was 
raining, raining hard, and snowing. 

Irina. Why recall it? 

[Baron Tuzenbach, Tchebutikin and Solyony appear by 
the table in the living-room, behind the pillars] 

Olga. It's so warm to-day that we can keep the win- 
dows open, though the birch trees are not yet in flower. 
Father was put in command of a brigade, and he left 

i 



2 THE THREE SISTERS 

Moscow with us eleven years ago. I remember perfectly 
that it was early May and everything in Moscow was in 
bloom. It was warm, too, everything was bathed in sun- 
shine. Eleven years have gone, and I remember every- 
thing as if it were only yesterday. Oh, God ! This morn- 
ing when I awakened and saw the glorious sunshine and 
the budding spring, my heart filled with joy, and I longed 
so much to go home. 

Tchebutikin. Will you bet on it? 

Tuzenbach. Oh, nonsense. 

[Masha, lost in reverie over her book, whistles softly] 

Olga. Don't whistle, Masha. How can you! [Pause] 
With teaching High School every day and giving lessons 
every evening, I have headaches all the time. Strange 
thoughts come to me, as if I were alreadv an old woman. 
And really, during the four years that I have been work- 
ing here, I have felt as if every day my strength and 
youth were being squeezed out of me, drop by drop. And 
only one desire grows and gains in strength. . . . 

Irina. To go to Moscow. To sell the house, leave 
everything here, and go to Moscow . . . 

Olga. Yes ! To Moscow, and as soon as possible. 

[Tchebutikin and Tuzenbach laugh] 

Irina. I expect brother will become a professor, but 
(Still, he won't wish to live here. Poor Masha is the only 
drawback. 

Olga. Masha will come to Moscow every year, for 
the whole summer. 

[Masha is whistling gently] 

Irina. God willing, everything will be arranged. 



THE THREE SISTERS 3 

[Looks out of the window] It's nice out to-day. I don't 
know why I'm so gay. I remembered this morning it was 
my birthday, and suddenly I felt so happy^nd thought of 
my childhood days, when mother was still with us. What 
glorious thoughts I had, what thoughts! 

Olga. You're all radiance to-day, I've never seen you 
look so lovely. And Masha is pretty, too. Andrei 
wouldn!t be bad-looking, if he hadn't taken on so much 
weight; it does spoil his appearance. But I've grown 
old and very thin ; I suppose it's because I get angry with 
the girls at school. To-day I'm free. I'm at home. I 
haven't a headache, and I feel younger than I did yester- 
day. I'm only twenty-eight. . . . All's well, God is 
everywhere, but it seems to me that if only I were married 
and could stay at home all day, it would be «even better. 
[Pause] I would love my husband. 

Tuzenbach [to Solyony] I'm tired of listening to 
your rot. [Entering the sitting-room] I forgot to say 
that Vershinin, our new Lieutenant-Colonel of artillery, 
is coming to see us to-day. [Sits downwt the piano] 

Olga. Well — I'm very glad. 

Irina. Is he old? 

Tuzenbach. Not very. Forty or forty-five, at the 
most. [Plays softly] He seems rather a good sort. He's 
certainly no fool, only he likes to hear himself talk. 

Irina. Is he interesting? 

Tuzenbach. Oh, he's all right, but there's his wife, 
his mother-in-law, and two daughters. This is his second 
wife. He pays visits and tells everybody that he has a 
wife and two daughters. He'll tell you so, too, when he 



4 THE THREE SISTERS 

comes here. His wife is half-witted, she wears her hair in 
a braid down her back and talks a blue streak. She 
philosophizes, and tries to commit suicide frequently, ap- 
parently in order to annoy her husband. In his place I 
would have left her long ago, but he bears up patiently, 
and only complains. 

Solyony [enters with Tchebutikin from the living- 
room'] With one hand I can lift only fifty-four pounds, 
but with both hands I can lift 180, or even 200. From 
this I conclude that two men are not twice as strong as 
one, but three times, perhaps even more. . . . 

Tchebutikin [reads a newspaper as he walks'] If 
your hair is coming out . . . take an ounce of naph- 
thaline and half a bottle of alcohol . . . dissolve and use 
daily. . . . [Makes a note in his pocket diary] I'll make 
a note of it! [To Solyony] Listen. You cork the bottle 
well, push a glass tube through the cork. . . . Then you 
take a small quantity of . . . 

Irina. Ivan Romanovitch, dear Ivan Romanovitch ! 

Tchebutikin. Well, what is it, my dear little girl? 

Irina. Why am I so happy to-day? I feel as if I were 
sailing under a great blue sky with huge white birds 
around me. Why is that? Why? 

Tchebutikin [kisses her hands, tenderly] My white 
bird. . . . 

Irina. When I awoke this morning and got up and 
washed, everything was like an open book to me, and I 
seemed to grasp the meaning of life. Dear Ivan Romano- 
vitch, I understand everything. Every one must toil in 
the sweat of his brow, whoever he may be. In this alone 



THE THREE SISTERS 5 

is the aim and object of his life, his happiness, his ambi- 
tion. How splendid it is to be a workman who gets up 
at daybreak and breaks stones in the street, or a shepherd, 
or a schoolmaster, who teaches children, or a railroad 
mechanic. . . . My God, if I can't be a man who works, 
I would rather be an ox, or a horse, or any work animal, 
than a young woman who wakes up at twelve o'clock, has 
her coffee in bed, and then spends two hours dress- 
ing. • . . Oh, it's awful ! Sometimes I crave work as a 
thirsty man craves water on a hot day. And if I don't 
get up early in the future and work, Ivan Romanovitch, 
then you may refuse me your friendship. 

Tchebutikin [tenderly] I agree, I agree. . . . 

Olga. Father used to make us get up at seven. Now 
Irina wakes at seven and lies and meditates about some- 
thing till nine at least. And she looks so serious! 
[Laughs] 

Irina; You're so used to me as a little girl that it 
seems queer to you that I should ever be serious. I'm 
twenty! 

Tuzenbach. I can understand that craving for work. 
God ! I've never worked in my life. I was born in chilly, 
lazy Petersburg, of a family that never needed to work 
nor ever had to worry. I remember when I came home 
from my regiment, a footman had to pull off my boots 
while I fidgeted and my mother gazed at me in adoration 
and wondered when others looked on disapprovingly. 
They shielded me from work; they almost succeeded, al- 
most ! The day of reckoning is here. Something formid- 
able is threatening us ; a strong, cleansing storm is gather- 



6 THE THREE SISTERS 

ing; it is coming nearer and nearer; it will soon sweep 
our world clean of laziness, indifference, prejudice against 
work, and wretched boredom. I shall soon work, and 
within twenty-five or thirty years, every one will work! 
Every one ! 

Tchebutikin. I shan't work. 

Tuzenbach. You do not matter. 

Solyony. In twenty-five years' time, we shall all be 
dead, thank the Lord. In two or three years a stroke 
will carry you off, or else I'll grow impatient and blow 
your brains out, my angel. 

[Takes a scent-bottle out of his pocket and sprays his 
chest and hands~\ 

Tchebutikin [laughs] It's quite true, I have never 
done anything in my life. After I left the university I 
never moved a finger or opened a book, I just read the 
papers. . . . [Takes another newspaper out of his pocket] 
Here we are. . . . According to the papers there used to 
be a writer, named Dobroluboff, but what he wrote — I 
don't know • . . God only knows . . . [Rapping is 
heard from the -floor below] There. . . . They're calling 
me downstairs, somebody's come to see me. I'll be back 
in a minute . . . won't be long . . . [Exit hurriedly, 
scratching his beard] 

Irina. He's up to something. 

Tuzenbach. Yes, he looked so pleased as he went 
out that I'm pretty certain he'll bring you a present in a 
moment. 

Irina. How unpleasant ! 

Olga. Yes, it's awful. He's always doing silly things. 



THE THREE SISTERS 7 

Masha. "A green oak stands by the sea. 

A chain of gold around it . . . 
A chain of gold around it . • » n 

[Masha rises and hums softly"] 

Olga. You're not very cheerful to-day, Masha. 
[Masha hums, putting on her hat] Where are you off to? 

Masha. Home. 

Irina. That's odd. . . . 

Tuzenbach. Leaving the birthday party? 

Masha. It doesn't matter. I'll come back in the 
evening. Good-bye, dear. [Kisses Irina] Once more let 
me wish you many happy returns ! In the old days when 
father was alive, every time we had a birthday, thirty or 
forty officers used to come, and there was plenty of noise 
and fun, and to-day there's only a man and a half, and 
it's as quiet as the grave. I'm off . . . I'm out of sorts 
to-day, and gloomy, so don't you mind me. [Laughs 
through her tears] We'll talk later on. Good-by for 
the present, my dear; I'll go somewhere. 

Irina [displeased] You are queer. . . . 

Olga [crying] I understand you, Masha. 

Solyony. When a man talks philosophy, well, it is 
philosophy or at any rate sophistry ; but when a woman, or 
two women, talk philosophy — it's all nonsense. 

Masha. What do you mean by that, you awful 
creature? 

Solyony. Oh, nothing. You jump on me before I 
can say Booh! [Pause.] 

Masha [angrily, to Olga] Stop bawling! 



8 THE THREE SISTERS 

[Enter Anfisa and Ferapont with a cake] 

Anfisa. This way, my dear. Come in, your feet are 
clean. [To Irina] The District Council, from Mikhail 
Ivanitch Protopopoff sends this cake. 

Irina. Thank you. Please thank him. [Takes the 
cake] 

Ferapont. What ? 

Irina [louder] Please thank him. 

Olga. Give him some pie, nurse. Ferapont, go, 
you'll get some pie. 

Ferapont. What ? 

Anfisa. Come on, grand-dad, Ferapont Spiridonitch. 
Come on. [Exeunt] 

Masha. I don't like this Mikhail Potapitch or Ivan- 
itch, Protopopoff. We should not invite him here. 

Irina. I never asked him. 

Masha. That's right. 

[Enter Tchebutikin followed by a soldier carrying a 
silver samovar; there are exclamations of astonishment 
and dissatisfaction] 

Olga [covers her face with her hands] A samovar! 
That's terrible! [Exit into the living-room, walks up to 
table] 

Irina. My dear Ivan Romanovitch, what are you 
doing! 

Tuzenbach [laughs] I told you so! 

Masha. Ivan Romanovitch, you are absolutely shame- 
less! 

Tchebutikin. My dear ones, you are all I have, 
everything I care for in all the world. I'll soon be sixty. 



THE THREE SISTERS 9 

I'm an old man, a lonely insignificant old man. The one 
good thing about me is my love for you, and if it hadn't 
been for that, I would have died long ago. ... [To 
Irind\ My dear little girl, Гѵе known you since you were 
born, I've carried you in my arms. ... I loved your 
dead mother. . . . 

Masha. But why such expensive presents? 

Tchebutikin [angrily, through his tears] Expensive 
presents . . . You should be scolded! . . . [To the 
orderly] Take the samovar in there . . . [teasing] Ex- 
pensive presents ! 

[The Orderly goes into the living-room with the 
samovar] 

Anfisa [enters and crosses stage] My dear, a strange 
Colonel is calling! He's taken off his coat already, 
children, he's coming in here. Irina darling, you'll be a 
nice and polite little girl, won't you? . . . [Going into 
living-room] It's long past the lunch hour. . , . Oh 
Lord . . . [Exit] 

Tuzenbach. It must be Vershinin. [Enter Ver- 
shinin] Lieutenant-Colonel Vershinin! 

Vershinin [to Masha and Irina] I have the honor of 
introducing myself, my name is Vershinin. I am very 
glad that I've met you at last. Why — you are grown 
up! Dear! Dear! 

Irina. Please sit down. We're very glad you came. 

Vershinin [gayly] I am glad, so very glad! But 
there are three sisters, surely. I remember — three little 
girls. I forget your faces, but your father, Colonel Pro- 
zoroff, used to have three little girls; I remember that 



ю THE THREE SISTERS 

perfectly ; I saw them with my own eyes. How time does 
fly ! Oh, dear, how it does fly ! 

Tuzenbach. Alexander Ignateievitch comes from 
Moscow. 

Irina. From Moscow? Are you from Moscow? 

Vershinin. Yes, from Moscow. Your late father 
used to command a battery there, and I was an officer in 
the same brigade. [To Masha] I seem to remember 
your face a little. 

Masha. I don't remember you. 

Irina. Olga! Olga! [Shouts into the living-room] 
Olga! Come here! [Olga enters from living-room] 
Lieutenant-Colonel Vershinin comes from Moscow, it ap- 
pears. 

Vershinin. You are doubtless Olga Sergeievna, the 
eldest, and you are Maria . . . and you Irina, the 
youngest. . . . 

Olga. So you come from Moscow? 

Vershinin. Yes. I went to school in Moscow and 
entered the army there; I served there for a long time 
until at last I got my battery and was transferred here, 
as you see. I don't really remember you, I only re- 
member that there were three sisters. I have a vivid 
recollection of your father. I have only to shut my eyes 
to see him as if he were alive. I used to visit your house 
in Moscow. . . . 

Olga. I always thought I remembered everybody, 
but . . . 

Vershinin. My name is Alexander Ignateievitch. 



THE THREE SISTERS n 

Irina. Alexander Ignateievitch, youVe come from 
Moscow. What a surprise ! 

Olga. We are going there, to live, you see. 

Irina. We expect to be there by autumn. It's our 
native town; we were born there, in Old Basmanny 
Street . . . [They both laugh gayly] 

Mash a. We've unexpectedly met a fellow townsman. 
[Briskly] I remember now: Do you remember, Olga, 
they used to speak at home of a "lovelorn Major." You 
were only a Lieutenant then, and in love with somebody, 
but for some reason they always called you a Major in 
fun. 

Vershinin [laughs] That's it . . . the lovelorn 
Major, that's it! 

Masha. You wore only mustaches then. You have 
grown older! [Through her tears] How you have grown 
older ! 

Vershinin. Yes, when they used to call me the love- 
lorn Major, I was young and in love. I've grown out of 
both now. 

Olga. But you haven't a single white hair. You're 
older, but you're not yet old. 

Vershinin. Still, I'm forty-two. Have you been 
away from Moscow long? 

Irina. Eleven years. What are you crying for, 
Masha, you little fool . . . [Crying] And I'm crying, 
too. 

Masha. It's all right. And where did you live? 

Vershinin. In Old Basmanny Street. 

Olga. So did we. 



12 THE THREE SISTERS 

Vershinin. Once I lived in Niemetskaya Street. 
That was when the Red Barracks were my headquarters. 
There's a gloomy bridge in between with the water rush- 
ing below. One grows melancholy when one is alone 
there. [Pause] Here the river is so wide and fine ! It's 
a splendid river! 

Olga. Yes, but it's so cold. It's very cold here, and 
the mosquitoes 

Vershinin. What are you saying! Here you have 
such a fine healthy Russian climate. You've a forest, a 
river . . . and birches. Dear, modest birches, I like 
them more than any other tree. It's good to live here. 
Only it's odd that the railway station should be thirteen 
miles away. . . . Nobody knows why. 

Solyony. I know why. [All look at him] Because 
if it was near it wouldn't be far off, and if it's far off, 
it can't be near. 

[An awkward pause] 

Tuzenbach. Vassily Vassilievitch — he is always 
jesting! 

Olga. Now I know who you are. I remember. 

Vershinin. I used to know your mother. 

Tchebutikin. She was a good woman, God rest 
her soul. 

Irina. Mother is buried in Moscow. 

Olga. At the Novo-Devitsky Cemetery. 

Mash a. Imagine, I'm beginning to forget her face. 
We'll be forgotten the same way — forgotten ! 

Vershinin. Yes, forgotten! It's our fate, it can't 
be helped. The time will come when everything that 



THE THREE SISTERS 13 

seems serious, significant, or very important to us will 
be forgotten, or considered trivial. [Pause] And the 
curious thing is that we can't possibly find out what will 
come to be regarded as great and important, and what 
will be worthless or ridiculous. Didn't the discoveries 
of Copernicus, or Columbus, say, seem unnecessary and 
ludicrous at first, while rubbish written by a fool was 
considered the whole truth? And it may happen that 
our present mode of life with which we are so satisfied, 
will in time appear strange, inconvenient, stupid, un- 
clean, perhaps even sinful. . . . 

Tuzenbach. Who knows? But, on the other hand, 
they may call our life noble and honor its memory. 
We've abolished torture and capital punishment, we 
live in security, but how much suffering there is still! 

Solyony [in a feeble voice] There, there. . . . The 
Baron will go without his dinner if you only let him 
talk philosophy. 

Tuzenbach. Vassily Vassilievitch, please leave me 
alone. [Takes another chair] This is a bore, you know. 

Solyony [feebly] There, there, there. 

Tuzenbach [to Vershinin] The amount of suffering 
we see to-day — there is so much of it ! — shows that 
society has already reached a specific moral improvement. 

Vershinin. Yes, yes, of course. 

Tchebutikin. You said just now, Baron, that they 
may call our life noble; but we are very petty. . . . 
[Stands up] See how small I am. But I can console 
myself by saying that my life is noble and lofty. [Violin 
played back stage] 



14 THE THREE SISTERS 

Masha. That's Andrei playing — our brother. 

Irina. He's a cultured man. I expect he will be a 
professor some day. Father was a soldier, but his son 
chose an academic career. 

Masha. That was father's wish. 

Olga. We teased him to-day. We think he's a bit in 
love. 

Irina. With a girl in town. She will probably be 
here to-day. 

Masha. You should see the way she dresses! Quite 
prettily, quite fashionably, too, but so unbecomingly! 
Some queer bright yellow skirt with a wretched little 
fringe and a red bodice. And her cheeks look so washed 
out, so washed out! Andrei isn't in love; I can't believe 
it. After all, he has taste! He's simply making fun of 
us. I heard yesterday that she was going to marry 
Protopopoff, the chairman of the Local Council. That 
would do her nicely. . . . [At the side door] Andrei, 
come here! Just for a minute, dear! 

[Enter Andrei] 

Olga. My brother, Andrei Sergeievitch. 

Vershinin. My name is Vershinin. 

Andrei. Mine is Prozoroff. [Wipes his perspiring 
face] You've come to take charge of the battery? 

Olga. Just think, Alexander Ignateievitch comes 
from Moscow. 

Andrei. That's all right. Now my little sisters 
won't give you any rest. 

Vershinin. I've already managed to bore them. 

Irina. Just look what a nice little picture frame 



THE THREE SISTERS 15 

Andrei gave me to-day. [Shows it] He made it himself. 

Vershinin [looks at the frame and does not know 
what to say] Yes. . . . It's a thing that . . . 

Irina. And he made that frame over there, on the 
piano as well. [Andrei waves his hand and walks away] 

Olga. He has a degree, plays the violin, carves all 
sorts of things out of wood, and is really a jack-of-all- 
trades. Don't go away, Andrei ! Heis got into a habit 
of always going away. Come here! 

[Masha and Irina take his arms and laughingly lead 
him back] 

Masha. Come, come! 

Andrei. Please leave me alone. 

Masha. You are funny. Alexander Ignateievitch 
used to be called the lovelorn Major, but he never 
minded. 

Vershinin. Not the least. 

Masha. I'd like to call you the lovelorn fiddler! 

Irina. Or the lovelorn professor! 

Olga. He's in love! Little Andrei is in love! 

Irina [applauds] Bravo, bravo! Encore! Little 
Andrei is in love. 

Tchebutikin [goes up behind Andrei and puts his 
arms about him] We were created for love only! 

[Roars with laughter, then sits down holding his news- 
paper in his hands] 

Andrei. That's enough, quite enough. • . . [Wipes 
his face] I couldn't sleep all night and now I am not 
quite myself. I read until four o'clock, then tried to 
sleep, but nothing happened. I thought about one thing 



іб THE THREE SISTERS 

and another, and then dawn came and the sun crept 
into my bedroom. This summer, while Fm here, I'd 
like to translate a book from the English. . . . 

Vershinin. Do you read English? 

Andrei. Yes; father, rest his soul, educated us al- 
most violently. It may seem trivial and foolish, but it's 
nevertheless true, that after his death I began to fill out, 
and I gained a good deal of weight within the year, as 
if my body had been freed from some tremendous pres- 
sure. Thanks to father, my sisters and I 'know French, 
German, and English, and Irina knows Italian as well. 
But we paid dearly for it all! 

Masha. A knowledge of three languages is an un- 
necessary luxury in this town. It isn't even a luxury 
but a sort of superfluous thing, like a sixth finger. We 
know a great deal too much. 

Vershinin. Well, I say! [Laughs] You know a 
great deal too mifth! I don't think there can really be 
a town so dull and stupid as to have no room for a clever, 
cultured person. Let us suppose even that among the 
hundred thousand inhabitants of this backward and crude 
town, there are only three persons like yourself. It 
stands to reason that you won't be able to conquer that 
dark mob around you; little by little as you grow older 
you will be bound to give way and lose yourselves in 
this crowd of a hundred thousand human beings; their 
life will suck you under, but still, you won't disappear 
without having influenced anybody; later on, others like 
you will come, perhaps six of them, then twelve, and 
so on, until at last your sort will be in the majority. 



THE THREE SISTERS 17 

In two or three hundred years life on this earth will be 
gorgeously beautiful and glorious. Mankind needs such 
a life, and if it is not ours to-day then we must look 
forward to it, wait, think, prepare for it. We must 
see and know more than our fathers and grandfathers 
saw and knew. [Laughs] And you complain that you 
know too much. 

Masha [takes off her hat] I'll stay to lunch. 

Irina [sighs] Really, all that should be written down. 

[Andrei has gone out quietly] 

Tuzenbach. You say that many years later, life on 
this earth will be beautiful and glorious. That's true. 
But to take part in it now, even indirectly, we must work 
and make ready — 

Vershinin [gets up] Yes. What a lot of flowers 
you have. [Looks round] It's a beautiful apartment! 
I envy you! All my life I moved from one quarter 
to another, and they never had more than two chairs, 
a sofa, and a fireplace which smoked. I've never had 
flowers like these in my life. . . . [Rubs* his hands] 
Well, well! 

Tuzenbach. Yes, we must work. You are probably 
thinking to yourself: The German is growing senti- 
mental. But I assure you I'm a Russian, I can't even 
speak German. My father belonged to the Orthodox 
Church. . . . [Pause] 

Vershinin [walks about the stage] I often wonder: 
suppose we could begin life over again, perfectly aware 
of our actions? Suppose we could use one life, already 
ended, as a sort of rough draft for another? I think 



i8 THE THREE SISTERS 

that every one of us would try, more than anything else, 
not to repeat himself; at the very least he would re- 
arrange his manner of life, he would make sure of rooms 
like these, with flowers and light ... I have a wife 
and two daughters. My wife's health is delicate and 
so on and so forth, and if I had to begin life all over 
again I would not marry. . . . No, no! 

[Enter Kuligin in a regulation tunic] 

Kuligin [going up to Irind] Dear sister, allow me 
to congratulate you on your birthday and to wish you, 
sincerely and from the bottom of my heart, good health 
and everything else in the world. And then let me offer 
you this book as a present. [Gives it to her] It is the 
history of our High School during the last fifty years, 
written by myself. The book is worthless, and written 
because I had nothing else to do, but read it all the 
same. How are you, gentlemen? [To Vershinin] My 
name is Kuligin, I am a teacher of the local High School, 
with the rank of Assistant Councilor of Pedagogics. 
[To Irina] You will in this book find a list of all our 
High School graduates of the last fifty years. Feci quod 
potuij faciant meliora potentes. [Kisses Masha] 

Irina. But you gave me one of these at Easter. 

Kuligin [laughs'] Impossible! You'd better give it 
back to me in that case, or else give it to the Colonel. 
Take it, Colonel. You may read it some day when 
you're bored. 

Vershinin. Thank you. [Prepares to go] I am so 
glad that I have made the acquaintance of . . . 

Olga. Must you go? No, not yet? 



THE THREE SISTERS 19 

Irina. You'll stay and have lunch with us. Please 
do. 

Olga. Yes, please! 

Vershinin [bows] I seem to have dropped in on 
your birthday. Forgive me, I didn't know, and I didn't 
offer you my congratulations. . . • 

[Goes with Olga into the living-room] 

Kuligin. To-day is Sunday, the day of rest, so let 
us rest and rejoice, each in a manner compatible with 
his age and disposition. The carpets will have to be 
taken up for the summer and put away till winter. . . . 
Persian powder or naphthaline. . . . The Romans were 
healthy because they knew both how to work and how 
to rest, they had mens sana in corpore sano. Their lives 
ran along certain well-defined grooves. Our director 
says: "The chief thing about each life is its routine. 
Whoever loses his routine loses himself" — and it's just 
the same with our daily actions. [Takes Masha by the 
waistj laughing'] Masha loves me. My wife loves me. 
And you ought to put the window curtains away with 
the carpets. ... I'm awfully pleased with life to-day. 
Masha, we have to be at the director's at four. They're 
getting up an excursion for the pedagogues and their 
families. 

Masha. I shan't go. 

Kuligin [hurt] My dear Masha, why not? 

Masha. I'll tell you later . . . [angrily] All right, 
I'll go, only please don't bother me. . . . [Steps to one 
side] 

Kuligin. And then we're to spend the evening at 



20 THE THREE SISTERS 

the director's. In spite of his ill-health that man tries, 
above everything else, to be sociable. A splendid, illumi- 
nating personality. A wonderful man. After yester- 
day's committee meeting, he said to me: "I'm tired, 
Fyodor Ilyitch, I'm tired!" [Looks at the clock, then at 
his watch] Your clock is seven minutes fast. "Yes," 
he said, "I'm tired." 

[Violin played off stage] 

Olga. Let's sit down to lunch, people! There's to 
be a masterpiece of a pie! 

Kuligin. Oh my dear, dear Olga. Yesterday I 
worked from early morning till eleven at night, and 
got awfully tired. To-day I'm quite happy. [Goes into 
living-room'] My dear . . ,. 

Tchebutikin [puts his paper into his pocket, and 
combs his beard] A pie? Splendid! 

Masha [severely to Tchebutikin] Only mind; you're 
not to drink anything to-day. Do you hear? It's bad 
for you. 

Tchebutikin. Oh, that's all right. I haven't been 
drunk for two years. [Impatiently] Motherkin, what 
difference does it make anyway? 

Masha. All the same, don't you dare drink! Don't 
you dare! [Angrily, but so that her husband should not 
hear] Another dull evening at the Director's, confound 
it! 

Tuzenbach. I shouldn't go if I were you. . . . 
It's quite simple. 

Tchebutikin. Don't go, dear heart! 

Masha. Yes, "don't go. . . ." It's a damned un- 
bearable life . . . [Goes into living-room] 



THE THREE SISTERS 21 

Tchebutikin [follows her] It's not so bad. 

Solyony [going into the living-room'] There, there, 
there. . . . 

Tuzenbach. Vassily Vassilievitch, that's enough! 
That will do! 

Solyony. There, there, there. . . . 

Kuligin [gayly] Your health, Colonel! I'm a peda- 
gogue and quite at home here. I'm Masha's husband. 
. . . She's a good soul, a very good soul. 

Vershinin. I'll have some of this dark vodka . . . 
[Drinks] Your health! [To Olga] I'm very comfort- 
able here! 

[Only Irina and Tuzenbach are now left in the sit' 
ting-room] 

Irina. Masha's out of sorts to-day. She married 
when she was eighteen, when he seemed to her the wisest 
of men. And now it's different. He's the kindest man, 
but not the wisest. 

Olga [impatiently] Andrei, when are you coming? 

Andrei [off] One minute. [Enters and goes to table] 

Tuzenbach. What are you thinking of? 

Irina. I don't like this Solyony of yours and I'm 
afraid of him. He says only foolish things. 

Tuzenbach. He's a queer man. I'm sorry for him, 
though he vexes me. I think he's shy. When there are 
just the two of us he's quite all right and very good 
company; when other people are about he's rough and 
irritating. Don't go in, let them sit down without us 
in the meanwhile. Let me stay with you. What are 
you thinking of? [Pause] You're twenty. I'm not yet 
thirty. How many years are there left to us, with their 



22 THE THREE SISTERS 

long monotony of days, filled with my love for you. . . • 

Irina. Nikolai Lvovitch, don't speak to me of love. 

Tuzenbach [does not hear] Гѵе a great thirst for 
life, struggle, and work, and this thirst has mated with 
my love for you, Irina, and you're so beautiful, and 
life seems so beautiful to me! What are you thinking 
of? 

Irina. You say that life is beautiful! Yes, if we 
only believe it to be so! So far the life of us three 
has not been beautiful; it has been stifling us . . . like 
a wet blanket . . . Гт crying. I oughtn't. . . . [Dries 
her tears, smiles] We must work, work. That is why 
we are unhappy and look at life so sadly; we don't know 
what work is. Our parents looked on work with contempt. 

[Enter Natalia Ivanovna; she wears a pink dress and 
a green sash] 

Natasha. They're already at lunch. . . . I'm late. 
. . . [Rapidly examines herself in a mirror, and 
straightens her clothes] I think my hair's done all right. 
. . . [Sees Irina] Dear Irina Sergeievna, I congratulate 
you! [Kisses her tenderly and at length] You've so 
many visitors, I'm really ashamed. . . . How do you do, 
Baron ! 

Olga [enters from living-room] Here's Natalia 
Ivanovna. How are you, dear! [They kiss] 

Natasha. Happy returns. I'm awfully embarrassed, 
you've so many people here. 

Olga. Oh come! They are all friends. [Frightened, 
in an undertone] You're wearing a green sash! My 
dear, you shouldn't! 



THE THREE SISTERS 23 

Natasha. Is it a sign of anything? 

Olga. No, it simply doesn't go well . . . and it 
looks so queer. 

Natasha [in a tearful voice'] Yes? But it isn't really 
green, it's too dull for that. [Goes into living-room with 
Olga. They have all sat down to lunch in the living- 
room j the sitting-room is empty] 

Kuligin. I wish you a nice fiance, Irina. It's high 
time you married. 

Tchebutikin. Natalia Ivanovna, I wish you the 
same. 

Kuligin. Natalia Ivanovna has a fiance already. 

Mash a [raps with her fork on a plate] I'll have a 
glass of wine. Life is all right if you don't waste it! 

Kuligin. You've lost three good conduct marks. 

Vershinin. This is a good cordial. What's it 
made of? 

Solyony. Cockroaches ! 

Irina [offended] Phoo! How disgusting! 

Olga. There is to be a roast turkey and a sweet 
apple pie for dinner. Thank goodness I can spend all 
day and evening at home. You'll come in the evening, 
ladies and gentlemen. . . . 

Vershinin. And please may I come in the evening? 

Irina. Please do. 

Natasha. They don't stand on ceremony here. 

Tchebutikin. Nature created us only for love. 
[Laughs] 

Andrei [angrily] Please don't. Aren't you tired of 
it? 



24 THE THREE SISTERS 

[Enter Fedotik and Rode with a large basket of 
flowers] 

Fedotik. They're lunching already. 

Rode [loudly and thickly] Lunching? Yes, so they 
are. . . . 

Fedotik. Wait a minute! [Takes a photograph] 
That's one. No, just a moment. . . . [Takes another] 
That's two. Now we're ready! 

[They take the basket and go into living-room, where 
they are the center of a noisy reception] 

Rode [loudly] Congratulations and best wishes! 
Lovely weather to-day, simply perfect. I was out walk- 
ing with the High School students all the morning. I 
supervise their drills. 

Fedotik. You may move, Irina Sergeievna! [Takes 
a photograph] You look well to-day. [Takes a hum- 
ming-top out of his pocket] Here's a humming-top, by 
the way. It's got a lovely note! 

Irina. How very nice! 

Masha. "A green oak stands by the sea, 

A chain of gold around it . . . 
A chain of gold around it. . . ." 
[Tearfully] What am I saying that for? Those words 
have been running in my head all day. . . . 

Kuligin. There are thirteen at table! 

Rode [aloud] Surely you don't believe in that super- 
stition ? [Laughter] 

Kuligin. If there are thirteen at table then it means 
there are lovers present. It isn't you, Ivan Romano- 
vitch, confound it! . . . [Laughter] 



THE THREE SISTERS 25 

Tchebutikin. Fm a hardened sinner, but I really 
don't see why Natalia Ivanovna should blush. . . . 

[Loud laughter; Natasha runs out in the living-room; 
followed by Andrei] 

Andrei. Don't pay any attention to them! Wait 
„ . . stop, please. . . . 

Natasha. I'm embarrassed ... I don't know 
what's the matter with me and they're all laughing at 
me. It wasn't nice of me to leave the table like that, 
but I can't help myself ... I can't. [Covers her face 
with her hands] 

Andrei. My dear, I beg you. I implore you not to 
excite yourself. I assure you they're only joking, they're 
kind people. My dear, dear child, they're all kind and 
sincere people, and they like both you and me. Gome 
here to the window, they can't see us here. . . . [Looks 
around] 

Natasha, I'm so unaccustomed to meeting people! 

Andrei. Oh, your youth, your splendid, beautiful 
youth! Darling, don't be so excited! Trust me, please 
trust me. . . . I'm so happy, my soul is full of love, of 
ecstasy. They can't see us! They can't! Why did I 
fall in love with you — when I did ? — Oh, I can't un- 
derstand! My dear! little sweetheart, be my wife! I 
love you, love you . . . [They kiss] as I never loved 
any one. . . . 

[Two officers come in and, seeing the lovers kiss, stop 
in astonishment] 

curtain 



ACT TWO 

As before. It is 8 p.m. Somebody is heard playing a 
concertina outside in the street. There is no fire. Natalia 
Ivanovna enters dressed in a wrapper, carrying a candle; 
she stops by the door which leads into Andrei's room. 

Natasha. What are you doing, Andrei? Are you 
reading? It's nothing, only I. . . . [She opens another 
door , and looks in, then closes it] Isn't there any 
fire. . . . 

Andrei [enters with book in hand] What are you 
doing, Natasha? 

Natasha. I was looking to see if there wasn't a 
fire. It's Shrovetide, and the servants are simply beside 
themselves; I must take care that something doesn't hap- 
pen. When I came through the living-room yesterday 
at midnight, there was a candle burning. I couldn't find 
out who had lighted it. [Puts down her candle] What's 
the time? 

Andrei [looks at his watch] A quarter past eight. 

Natasha. And Olga and Irina aren't in yet. The 
poor things are still at work. Olga at the teacher's 
council, Irina at the telegraph office . . . [Sighs] I said 
to your sister this morning, "Irina, darling, you must 
take care of yourself." But she pays no attention. Did 
you say it was a quarter past eight? I am afraid little 

26 



THE THREE SISTERS 27 

Bobby is quite ill. Why is he so cold ? He was feverish 
yesterday, but to-day he is quite cold ... I am so 
frightened ! 

Andrei. It's all right, Natasha. The boy is well, 

Natasha. Still, Г think we should put him on a 
diet. I am so afraid. And the performers were to be 
here after nine; they had better not come, Andrei. 

Andrei. I don't know. After all, they were asked. 

Natasha. This morning, when the little boy woke 
up and saw me he suddenly smiled ; that means he knew 
me. "Good morning, Bobby!" I said, "good morning, 
darling." And he laughed. Children understand, they 
understand very well. So I'll tell them, Andrei dear, 
not to receive the performers. 

Andrei [hesitatingly'] But what about my sisters? 
This is their flat. 

Natasha. They'll do as I wish. They are so kind. 
... [Going] I ordered sour milk for supper. The doc- 
tor says you must eat sour milk and nothing else, or you 
won't get thin. [Stops] Bobby is so cold. I'm afraid 
his room is too cold for him. It would be nice to put 
him into another room till the warm weather comes. 
Irina's room, for instance, is just right for the child: 
it's dry and has the sun all day. I must tell her, she 
can share Olga's room. ... It isn't as if she was at 
home in the daytime, she only sleeps here. . . . [A 
pause] Andrei, darling, why are you so silent? 

Andrei. I was just thinking. . . . There is really 
nothing to say. . . . 

Natasha. Yes . . . there was something I wanted 



28 THE THREE SISTERS 

to tell you . . . Oh, yes. Ferapont has come from the 
Council offices, he wants to see you. 

Andrei [yawns] Call him in! 

[Natasha goes out; Andrei reads his book, stooping 
over the candle which she has left behind. Ferapont 
enters; he wears a tattered old coat with the collar 
turned up. His ears are muffled] 

Andrei. Good morning, grandfather. What have 
you to say? 

Ferapont. The Chairman sends a book and some 
documents or other. Here . . . [Hands him a book and 
a packet] 

Andrei. Thank you. It's all right. Why couldn't 
you come earlier? It's past eight now. 

Ferapont. What ? 

Andrei [louder] I say you've come late, it's past eight. 

Ferapont. Yes, yes. I came when it was still light, 
but they wouldn't let me in. They said you were busy. 
Well, what was I to do? If you're busy, you're busy, 
and I'm in no hurry. [He thinks that Andrei is asking 
him something] What? 

Andrei. Nothing. [Looks through the book] To- 
morrow is Friday. I'm not supposed to go to work, but 
I'll come — all the same . . . and do some work. It's 
dull at home. [Pause] Oh, my dear old man, how 
strangely life changes, and how it deceives one! To-day, 
out of sheer boredom, I took up this book — old uni- 
versity lectures, and I couldn't help laughing. My God, 
I'm secretary of the local district council, the council 
which has Protopopoff for its chairman, yes, I'm the 



THE THREE SISTERS 29 

secretary, and the summit of my ambition is — to become 
a member of the council ! I to be a member of the local 
district council, I, who dream every night that I'm a 
professor of Moscow University, a famous scholar of 
whom all Russia is proud! 

Ferapont. I can't tell . . . Fm hard of hear- 
ing. ... 

Andrei. If you weren't, I don't suppose I should 
talk to you. I've got to talk to somebody, and my wife 
doesn't understand me, and I'm a bit afraid of my sisters 
■ — I don't know why unless it is that they might make 
fun of me and make me feel ashamed ... I don't drink, 
I don't like public houses, but old fellow, how I should 
like to be sitting just now in Tyestoff's place in Moscow, 
or at the Great Moscow! 

Ferapont. Moscow? That's where a contractor 
told me once that some merchants or other ate pan- 
cakes; one ate forty and he died, he was saying. Either 
forty or fifty, I forget which. 

Andrei. In Moscow you can sit in an enormous 
restaurant where you don't know anybody and where 
nobody knows you, and you don't feel that you're a 
stranger for all that. And here you know everybody and 
everybody knows you, and you're a stranger . . . and a 
lonely stranger. 

Ferapont. What? And the same contractor said 
— perhaps he was lying — that there was a cable 
stretching right across Moscow. 

Andrei. What for? 

Ferapont. I can't tell. The contractor said so. 



ЗО THE THREE SISTERS 

Andrei. Rubbish. [He reads] Were you ever in 
Moscow? 

Ferapont [after a pause] No. God did not lead me 
there. [Pause] Shall I leave? 

Andrei. You may. Good-by. [Ferapont goes] 
Good-by. [Reads] You can come to-morrow and fetch 
these documents . . . Run along . . . [Pause] He's 
gone. [A ring] Yes, yes . . . 

[Stretches- himself and slowly goes into his own room. 
Behind the scene the nurse is singing a lullaby to the 
child. Masha and Vershinin come in. While they talk, 
a maid lights candles and a lamp] 

Masha. I don't know. [Pause] I don't know. Of 
course, habit counts for a great deal. After father's 
death, for instance, it took us a long time to get used to 
the absence of orderlies. But, apart from habit, it seems 
to me in all fairness that, however it may be in other 
towns, the best and most thoroughly educated people 
are army men. 

Vershinin. Fm thirsty. I should like some tea. 

Masha [glancing at her watch] They'll bring it soon. 
I was married when I was eighteen, and I was afraid 
of my husband because he was a teacher and Fd only 
just left school. Then he seemed to me frightfully wise 
and learned and important. And now, unfortunately, 
that has changed. 

Vershinin. Yes . . . yes. 

Masha. I don't speak of my husband, Fve grown 
used to him, but civilians in general are so often coarse, 
impolite, uneducated. Their rudeness offends me, it angers 



THE THREE SISTERS 31 

me. I suffer when I see that a man isn't quite suffi- 
ciently refined, or delicate, or polite. I simply suffer 
agonies when I happen to be among schoolmasters, my 
husband's colleagues. 

Vershinin. Yes . . . But it seems to me that 
civilians and army men are equally interesting, in this 
town, at any rate. It's all the same! If you listen to 
a member of the local intelligentsia, whether civilian or 
military, he will tell you that he's sick of his wife, sick 
of his house, sick of his estate, sick of his horses. . . . 
We Russians are extremely gifted in the direction of 
thinking on an exalted plane, but, tell me, why do we 
aim so low in real life? Why? 

Masha. Why? 

Vershinin. Why is a Russian sick of his children, 
sick of his wife? And why are his wife and children 
sick of him? 

Masha. You're a little downhearted to-day. 

Vershinin. Perhaps I am. I haven't had any din- 
ner, I've had nothing to eat since morning. My daugh- 
ter is a little under the weather and when my girls are 
ill, I get very anxious and my conscience tortures me 
because they have such a mother. Oh, if you had seen 
her to-day! What an insignificant creature! We began 
quarreling at seven in the morning and at nine I slammed 
the door and went out. [Pause] I never speak of it, it's 
strange that I should complain to you alone. [Kisses 
her hand] Don't be angry with me. I haven't anybody 
but you, nobody at all. . . . [Pause] 

Masha. What a noise in the oven. Just before 



32 THE THREE SISTERS 

father's death there was a noise in the pipe, just like 
that. 

Vershinin. Are you superstitious? 

Masha. Yes. 

Vershinin. That's strange. [Kisses her hand] You 
are a splendid, wonderful woman. Splendid, wonderful! 
It is dark here, but I can see the sparkle in your eyes! 

Masha [sits on another chair] There is better light 
here. 

Vershinin. I love you, love you, love you. . . . 
I love your eyes, your gestures, I dream of them. . . . 
Splendid, wonderful woman! 

Masha [laughing gently] When you talk to me like 
that, I laugh; I don't know why, for I'm afraid. Don't 
repeat it, ріеаэе. . . . [In an undertone] No, go on, 
it's all the same to me. . . . [Covers her face with her 
hands] Somebody's coming, let's talk about something 
else. . . . 

[Irina and Tuzenbach come in through the living- 
room] 

Tuzenbach. My surname is really triple. I am 
called Baron Tuzenbach-Krone-Altschauer, but I am 
Russian and Orthodox, just as you are. There is very 
little German left in me, unless perhaps it is the patience 
and the obstinacy with which I bore you. I see you home 
every night. 

Irina. I am so tired! 

Tuzenbach. And I'll come to the telegraph office 
to see you home every day for ten or twenty years, until 



THE THREE SISTERS 33 

you drive me away. [He sees Masha and Vershinin; 
joyfully] Is that you? How do you do? 

Irina. Well, I am home at last. [To Masha] A 
lady came to telegraph to her brother in Saratoff that 
her son died to-day, and she couldn't remember the ad- 
dress. So she sent the telegram without an address, just 
to Saratoff. She was crying. And for some reason or 
other I was rude to her. "Гѵе no time, ,, I said. It was 
so stupid. Are the performers coming to-night? 

Masha. Yes. 

Irina [sitting down in an armchair] I need a rest. 
I am tired. 

Tuzenbach [smiling] When you come home from 
your work you seem so young, and so pitiful. . . . 
[Pause] 

Irina. I am tired. No, I don't like the telegraph 
office, I don't like it. 

Masha. YouVe grown thinner. . . . [Whistles a 
little] And you look younger, and your face has become 
like a boy's. 

Tuzenbach. That's the way she does her hair. 

Irina. I must find another position, this one is not 
to my liking. The very thing I wanted and hoped to 
get, is lacking. Labor without poetry, without ideas 
. . . [A knock on the floor] The doctor is knocking. 
[To Tuzenbach] Will you knock, dear? I can't . . . 
Гт tired. . . . [Tuzenbach knocks] He'll come in a 
minute. Something ought to be done. Yesterday the 
doctor and Andrei played cards at the club and lost 
money. Andrei seems to have lost 200 rubles. 



34 THE THREE SISTERS 

Mash A [with indifference] What can we do now? 

Irina. He lost money a fortnight ago, he lost money 
in December. Perhaps if he lost everything we should 
go away from this town. Oh, my God, I dream of 
Moscow every night. I'm just like a lunatic. [Laughs] 
We go there. in June, and before June there's still . . . 
February, March, April, May . . . nearly half a year! 

Masha. Only Natasha mustn't learn of these losses. 

Irina. I suppose it would be all the same to her. 

[Tchebutikin, who has only just got out of bed — he 
was resting after dinner — comes into the living-room 
and combs his beard. He then sits at the -table and takes 
a newspaper from his pocket] 

Masha. Here he is. . . . Has he paid his rent? 

Irina [laughs'] No. He's been here eight months and 
hasn't paid a kopeck. Seems to have forgotten. 

Masha [laughs] What dignity in his pose! [They 
all laugh] 

Irina. Why are you so silent, Alexander Ignateie- 
vitch ? 

Vershinin. I don't know. I must have some tea. 
Half my life for a glass of tea : I haven't had anything 
since morning. 

Tchebutikin. Irina Sergeievna! 

Irina. What is it? 

Tchebutikin. Please come here, Venez icu [Irina 
goes and sits at the table] I can't do without you. 
[Irina begins to play solitaire] 

Vershinin. Well, if we can't have tea, let's philoso- 
phize, at any rate. 



THE THREE SISTERS 35 

Tuzenbach. Yes, let's. About what? 

Vershinin. About what? Let us meditate . . . 
about life as it will be after our time; for example, in 
two or three hundred years. 

Tuzenbach. Well? After our time people will fly 
about in balloons, the cut of one's coat will change, per- 
haps they'll discover a sixth sense and develop it, but life 
will remain the same, laborious, mysterious, and happy. 
And in a thousand years'* time, people will still be sigh- 
ing: "Life is hard!" — and at the same time they'll be 
just as afraid of death, and unwilling to meet it, as we 
are. 

Vershinin [thoughtfully] How can I put it? It 
seems to me that everything on earth must change, little 
by little, and is already changing under our very eyes. 
After two or three hundred years, after a thousand — - the 
actual time doesn't matter — a new and happy age will 
begin. We, of course, shall not take part in it, but we 
live and work and even suffer to-day that it should come. 
We create it — and in that one object is our destiny, and, 
if you like, our happiness. 

[Masha laughs softly.] 

Tuzenbach. What is it? 

Masha. I don't know. I've been laughing all day, 
ever since morning. 

Vershinin. I finished my education at the same 
point as you; I have had no university training; I read 
a lot, but I cannot choose my books and perhaps what I 
read is not at all what I should, but the longer I live, 
the more I want to know. My hair is turning white, I 



3$ THE THREE SISTERS 

am nearly an old man now, but I know so little, oh, so 
little ! But I think I know the things that matter most, 
and that are most real. I know them well. And I wish I 
could make you understand that there is no happiness for 
us, that there should not and cannot be. . . . We must 
only work and work, and happiness is only for our distant 
posterity. [Pause] If not for me, then for the descendants 
of my descendants. 

[Fedotik and Rode come into the living-room ; they sit 
and sing softly, strumming on guitars] 

Tuzenbach. According to you, one should not even 
think about happiness! But suppose I am happy? 

Vershinin. No. 

Tuzenbach [moves his hands and laughs] We do not 
seem to understand each other. How can I convince you ? 
[Masha laughs quietly, Tuzenbach continues, pointing at 
her] Yes, laugh! [To Vershinin] Not only after two or 
three centuries, but in a million years, life will still be 
as it was; life does not change, it remains forever, fol- 
lowing its own laws which do not concern us, or which, 
at any rate, you will never be able to fathom. Migrant 
birds, cranes for example, fly and fly, and whatever 
thoughts, high or low, enter their heads, they will still 
fly and not know why or where. They fly and will con- 
tinue to fly, whatever philosophers should be born among 
them; they may philosophize as much as they like, only 
they will fly. . . . 

Masha. Still is there a meaning? 

Tuzenbach. A meaning. . . . Imagine that snow 
is falling! Any special meaning in that? [Pause] 



THE THREE SISTERS 37 

Masha. It seems to me that a man must have faith, 
or must search for a faith, or his life will be empty, 
empty . . . To live and not to know why the cranes fly, 
why babies are born, why there are stars in the sky . . • 
Either you must know why you live, or everything is 
trivial, not worth a straw. [A pause] 

Vershinin. Still, I am sorry that my youth has gone. 

Masha. Gogol says: life in this world is a dull mat- 
ter, gentlemen ! 

Tuzenbach. And I say it's difficult to argue with 
you, gentlemen ! Confound it all ! 

Tchebutikin [reading] Balzac was married at Berd- 
itcheff. [Irina is singing softly] That's worth making a 
note of. [He makes a note] Balzac was married at Berd- 
itcheff. [Goes on reading] 

Irina [laying out cards, thoughtfully] Balzac was 
married at Berditcheff. 

Tuzenbach. The die is cast. Гѵе handed in my 
resignation, Maria Sergeievna. 

Masha. So I heard. I don't see what good that does; 
I don't like civilians. 

Tuzenbach. Never mind . . . [Gets up] Fm not 
handsome; what use am I as a soldier? Well, it makes 
no difference ... I shall work. If only just once in 
my life I could work so that I could come home in the 
evening, fall exhausted on my bed, and go to sleep at 
once. [Going into the living-room] Workmen, I suppose, 
do sleep soundly! 

Fedotik [to Irina] I bought some colored pencils iot 



38 THE THREE SISTERS 

you at Pizhikoff's in the Moscow Road, just now. And 
here is a little knife. 

Irina. You have got into the habit of behaving to me 
as if I am a little girl, but I am grown up. [Takes the 
pencils and the knife, then, with joy] How lovely! 

Fedotik. And I bought myself a knife . . . look at 
it . . . one blade, another, a third, an ear-scoop, scissors* 
nail-cleaners. . . . 

Rode [loudly'] Doctor, how old are you? 

Tchebutikin. I? Thirty-two. [Laughter] 

Fedotik. I'll show you another kind of solitaire. 
[Lays out cards] 

[A samovar is brought in; Anfisa attends to it; a little 
later Natasha enters and helps by the table; Solyony ar- 
rives and, after greetings, sits at the table] 

Vershinin. What a wind ! 

Masha. Yes. Гт tired of winter. Гѵе already for- 
gotten what summer's like. 

Irina. The solitaire is coming out, I see. We shall 
go to Moscow. 

Fedotik. No, it won't come out. Look, the eight was 
on the two of spades. [Laughs] That means you won't 
go to Moscow. 

Tchebutikin [reading paper] Tsitsikar. Smallpox is 
raging here. 

Anfisa [coming up to Masha] Masha, have some tea, 
little mother. [To Vershinin] Please have some, sir . . . 
excuse me, but I've forgotten your name. . . . 

Masha. Bring some here, nurse. I shan't go over 
there. 



THE THREE SISTERS 39 

Irina. Nurse! 

Anfisa. Coming, coming! 

Natasha [to Solyony] Children at the breast under- 
stand perfectly. I said, "Good morning, Bobby; good 
morning, dear!" and he looked at me in quite an unusual 
way. You think it's only the mother in me that is speak- 
ing; I assure you that isn't so! He's a wonderful child. 

Solyony. If he was my child I'd roast him on a 
frying-pan and eat him. [Takes his glass into the draw- 
ing-room and sits in a corner] 

Natasha [covers her face in her hands] Vulgar, ill- 
bred man! 

Masha. Lucky the one who doesn't notice whether 
it's winter now, or summer. I think that if I were in 
Moscow, I shouldn't mind the weather. 

Vershinin. A few days ago I was reading the prison 
diary of a French minister. He had been sentenced on 
account of the Panama scandal. With what joy, what 
delight, he speaks of the birds which he saw through the 
prison windows, which he had never noticed while he was 
a minister. Now, of course, that he is at liberty, he 
notices birds no more than he did before. When you 
live in Moscow, you'll not notice it, in just the same way. 
There can be no happiness for us, it exists only in our 
anticipations. 

Tuzenbach [takes cardboard box front the table] 
Where is the candy ? 

Irina. Solyony has eaten it. 

Tuzenbach. All of it? 

Anfisa [serving tea] There's a letter for you. 



40 THE THREE SISTERS 

Vershinin. For me? [Takes the letter] From my 
daughter. [Reads'] Yes, of course ... I will go quietly. 
Excuse me, Maria Sergeievna. I shan't have any tea. 
[Stands up , excited] That eternal story. . . . 

Mash a. What is it? Is it a secret? 

Vershinin [quietly] My wife has poisoned herself 
again. I must go. I'll leave quietly. It's all awfully 
unpleasant. [Kisses Mashcfs hand] My dear, splendid, 
good woman . . . I'll go this way, quietly. [Exit] 

Anfisa. Where has he gone? And I'd served tea . . . 
What a man ! 

Masha [angrily] Be quiet! You never give one a 
moment's peace . . . [Goes to the table with her cap] 
I'm tired of you, old woman ! 

Anfisa. My dear! Why are you cross? 

Andrei's Voice. Anfisa! 

Anfisa [mocking] Anfisa! He sits thereand • . ♦ 
[Exit] 

Masha [in the living-room, by the table angrily] Let 
me sit down ! [Disturbs the cards on the table] Here you 
are, spreading your cards out. Have some tea! 

Irina. You are cross, Masha. 

Masha. If I am cross, then don't talk to me. Don't 
touch me ! 

Tchebutikin. Don't touch her, don't touch her . . . 

Masha. You're sixty, but you're like a boy, always up 
to some beastly nonsense. 

Natasha [sighs] Dear Masha, why use such lan- 
guage? With your beautiful face and body, you would 
be simply fascinating in good society, I tell you so 



THE THREE SISTERS 41 

frankly, if it wasn't for your language. Je vous prie, 
pardonnez-moi, Marie, mats vous avez des manieres un 
feu grossieres. 

Tuzenbach {restraining his laughter] Let me have 
„ . . Let me have . . . there's some brandy, I think. 

Natasha. // parfait, que топ Bobick deja ne dort 
pas, he has awakened. He isn't well to-day. I'll go to 
him, excuse me. . . . [Exit] 

Irina. Where has Alexander Ignateievitch gone? 

Masha. Home. Something extraordinary happened 
to his wife again. 

Tuzenbach [goes to Solyony with a brandy-flask in 
his hands'] You go on sitting by yourself, thinking of 
something — goodness knows what. Come and let's make 
peace. Let's have some brandy. [They drink] I expect 
I'll have to play the piano all night, some rubbish most 
likely . • . well, so be it! 

Solyony. Why make peace? I haven't quarreled 
with you. 

Tuzenbach. You always make me feel as if some- 
thing had taken place between us. You've a strange 
character, you must admit. 

Solyony [declaims] "I am strange, but who is not? 
Don't be angry, Aleko!" 

Tuzenbach. And what has Aleko to do with it? 
[Pause] 

Solyony. When I'm with one other man I behave 
just like everybody else, but in company I'm dull and shy 
and • . . talk all manner of rubbish. But I'm more 



42 THE THREE SISTERS 

honest and more honorable than very, very many people. 
And I can prove it. 

Tuzenbach. I am often angry with you, you always 
fasten on to me in company, but I like you all the same. 
Гт going to drink my fill to-night, whatever happens. 
Drink now! 

Solyony. Let's drink. [They drink] I never had any- 
thing against you, Baron. But my character is like Ler- 
montofFs. [In a low voice] I even rather resemble Ler- 
montoff, they say. . . . 

[Takes a scent-bottle from his pocket, arid scents his 
hands] 

Tuzenbach. Гѵе sent in my resignation. Enough 
said ! Гѵе been thinking about it for five years, and at 
last I made up my mind. I shall work. 

Solyony [declaims] "Do not be angry, Aleko ... 
forget, forget, thy dreams of yore . . . " 

[While he is speaking Andrei enters quietly with a 
book and sits near the candle] 

Tuzenbach. I shall work. 

Tchebutikin [going with Irina into the living-room] 
And then the food was also real Caucasian onion soup, 
and for a roast, some chehartma. 

Solyony. Cheremsha isn't meat at all, but a plant 
something like an onion. 

Tchebutikin. No, my angel. Chehartma isn't onion, 
but roast mutton. 

Solyony. And I tell you, cheremsha — is a sort of 
onion. 

Tchebutikin. ' And I tell you chehartma — is mutton. 



THE THREE SISTERS 43 

Solyony. And I tell you cheremsha — is a sort of 
onion. 

Tchebutikin. What's the use of arguing! YouVe 
never been in the Caucasus, and never ate any che- 
hartma. 

Solyony. I never ate it, because I hate it. It smells 
like garlic. 

Andrei [imploring] Please, please! I beg you! 

Tuzenbach. When are the performers coming? 

Irina. They promised to be here around nine; that 
is, quite soon. 

Tuzenbach [embraces Andrei] "Oh my house, my 
house, my new built-house." 

Andrei [dances and sings] "Newly-built of maple- 
wood." 

Tchebutikin [dances] "Its walls are like a sieve !" 
[Laughter] 

Tuzenbach [kisses Andrei] Hang it all, let's drink, 
Andrei, old boy, let's drink with you. And I'll go with 
you, Andrei, to the University of Moscow. 

Solyony. Which one? There are two universities in 
Moscow. 

Andrei. There's only one university in Moscow. 

Solyony. Two, I tell you. 

Andrei. I don't care if there are three. So much the 
better. 

Solyony. There are two universities in Moscow! 
[There are murmurs and "hushes"] There are two uni- 
versities in Moscow, the old one and the new one. And 
if you don't like to listen, if my words annoy you, then I 



44 THE THREE SISTERS 

need not speak. I can even go into another room . . . 
[Exit.] 

Tuzenbach. Bravo, bravo! [Laughs] Come on, 
now, I'm going to play. Funny man, Solyony . . . 
[Goes to the piano and plays a waltz.] 

Mash a [dancing solo] The Baron's drunk, the Baron's 
drunk, the Baron's drunk! 

[Natasha comes in] 

Natasha [to Tchebutikin] Ivan Romanovitch! [Says 
something in a whisper to Tchebutikin, then goes out 
quietly: Tchebutikin touches Tuzenbach on the shoulder 
and whispers something to him] 

Irina. What is it? 

Tchebutikin. Time for us to go. Good-bye. 

Tuzenbach. Good-night. It's time we went. 

Irina. But, really, the performers! 

Andrei [in confusion] There won't be any perform- 
ers. You see, dear, Natasha says that Bobby isn't quite 
well, and so ... In a word, I don't care, and it's 
absolutely all the same to me. 

Irina [shrugging her shoulders] Bobby ill! 

Masha. What is she thinking of ! Well, if they are 
sent home, I suppose they must go. [To Irina] Bobby's 
all right, it's she herself . . . Here! [Taps her forehead] 
Little bourgeoise! 

[Andrei goes to his room through the right-hand door, 
Tchebutikin follows him. In the dining-room they are 
saying good-bye] 

Fepotik. What a shame! I was expecting to spend 



THE THREE SISTERS 45 

the evening here, but of course, if the little baby is ill . . . 
Г11 bring him some toys to-morrow. 

Rode [loudly] I slept late after dinner to-day because 
I thought I was going to dance all night. It's only nine 
o'clock now ! 

Masha. Let's go into the street, we can talk there. 
Then we can settle things. 

[Good-bye and good nights are heard. Tuzenbach's 
merry laughter is heard. All go out. Anfisa and the 
maid clear the table, and put out the lights. The nurse 
sings. Andrei, wearing an overcoat and a hat, and 
Tchebutikin enter silently] 

Tchebutikin. I never managed to get married be- 
cause my life passed me by like a sheet of lightning, and 
because I was madly in love with your mother, who was 
married. 

Andrei. One shouldn't marry. One shouldn't, be- 
cause it's a bore. 

Tchebutikin. So there I am, in my loneliness. Say 
what you will, loneliness is a terrible thing, old fel- 
low . . . Though really ... of course, it doesn't matter 
in the least ! 

Andrei. Let's be quicker. 

Tchebutikin. What are you in such a hurry for? 
We shall be in time. 

Andrei. I'm afraid my wife may stop me. 

Tchebutikin. Ah ! 

Andrei. I shan't play to-night, I shall only sit and 
look on. I don't feel very well . . . What am I to do 
for my asthma, Ivan Romanovitch? 



ф THE THREE SISTERS 

Tchebutikin. Don't ask me! I don't remember, old 
fellow, I don't know. 

Andrei. Let's go through the kitchen. [They go out. 
A bell rings twice; voices and laughter are heard] 

Irina [enters] What's that? 

Anfisa [whispers] The musicians! [Bell] 

Irina. Tell them there's nobody at home, nurse. They 
must excuse us. 

[Anfisa goes out. Irina walks about the room deep in 
thought; she is excited. Solyony enters] 

Solyony [in surprise] There's nobody here . . . 
Where are they all? 

Irina. They've gone home. 

Solyony. How strange. Are you alone here ? 

Irina. Yes, alone. [A pause] Good-bye. 

Solyony. Just now I behaved tactlessly, thoughtlessly. 
But you are not like all the others, you are noble and 
pure, you see the truth . . . You alone can understand 
me. I love you, deeply, beyond measure, I love you. 

Irina. Good-bye! Go away. 

Solyony. I cannot live without you. [Follows her'] 
Oh, my happiness! [Through his tears] Oh, joy! Won- 
derful, marvelous, glorious eyes, such as I have never 
seen in any other woman . . . 

Irina [coldly] Stop it, Vassily Vassilievitch ! 

Solyony. This is the first time I spoke to you of love, 
and it is as if I am no longer on earth, but on another 
planet. [Wipes his forehead] Well, never mind. I can't 
make you love me by force, of course . . . but I don't 
intend to have any more-favored rivals . . . No ... I 



THE THREE SISTERS 47 

swear to you by all the saints, I shall kill my rival . 
Oh, beautiful one ! 

[Natasha enters with a candle; she looks in through 
one door, then through another, and goes past the door 
leading to her husband's room] 

Natasha. Here's Andrei. Let him go on reading. 
Excuse me, Vassily Vassilievitch, I did not know you were 
here ; I am in negligee. 

Solyony. It's all the same to me. Good-bye! [Exit] 

Natasha. You're so tired, my poor dear girl ! [Kisses 
Irina] If only you went to bed earlier. 

Irina. Is Bobby asleep? 

Natasha. Yes, but restlessly. By the way, dear, I 
wanted to tell you, but either you weren't at home, or 
I was busy ... I think Bobby's present nursery is cold 
and damp. And your room would be so nice for the 
child. My dear, darling girl, do share Olga's room for 
a while! 

Irina [not understanding] Whose? 

[The bells of a troika are heard as it drives up to the 
house] 

Natasha. You and Olga can share a room, for the 
time being, and Bobby can have yours. He's such a darl- 
ing; to-day I said to him, "Bobby, you're mine! Mine!" 
And he looked at me with his dear little eyes. [A bell 
rings] It must be Olga. How late she is! [The maid 
enters and whispers to Natasha] Protopopoff? What a 
queer man to do such a thing. Protopopoff's come and 
wants me to go for a drive with him in his troika. 
[Laughs] How funny these men are . . . [A bell rings] 



48 THE THREE SISTERS 

Somebody has come. Suppose I go and have half an hours 
drive . . . [To the maid] Say I shan't be long. [Bell 
rings'] Somebody's ringing, it must be Olga. 

[Exit. The maid runs out; Irina sits deep in thought; 
Kuligin and Olga enter, followed by Vershinin] 

Kuligin. Well, there you are. And you said there 
was going to be a party. 

Vershinin. It's queer; I went away not long ago, 
half an hour back, and the musicians were expected. 

Irina. They've all gone. 

Kuligin. Has Masha gone, too? Where has she gone? 
And what's Protopopoff waiting for downstairs in his 
troika? Whom is he waiting for? 

Irina. Don't ask questions . . . I'm tired. 

Kuligin. Oh, you're all so touchy! 

Olga. My committee meeting is only just over. I'm 
tired out. Our school principal is ill, so I had to take 
her place. My head, my head is aching . . . [Sits] 
Andrei lost 200 rubles at cards yesterday . . • the whole 
town is talking of it . . . 

Kuligin. Yes, my meeting tired me, too. [Sits] 

Vershinin. My wife took it into her head to frighten 
me just now by nearly poisoning herself. It's all right 
now, and I'm glad — I can rest now . . . But perhaps 
we should go away? Well, my best wishes, Fyodor 
Ilyitch, let's go somewhere together! I can't, I absolutely 
can't stay home . . . Come on ! 

Kuligin. I'm tired. I won't go. [Gets up] I'm 
tired. Has my wife gone home? 

Irina. I suppose so. 



THE THREE SISTERS 49 

Kuligin [kisses Irina' s hand] Good-bye, Гт going to 
rest all day to-morrow and the day after. Best wishes? 
[Going] I should like some tea. I was looking forward 
to spending the whole evening in pleasant company and — 
0, fallacem hominum spent! . . .Accusative case after 
an interjection ... 

Vershinin. Then I'll go somewhere by myself. 

[Exit with Kuligin, whistling] 

Olga. I've such a headache . . . Andrei has been los- 
ing money . . . The whole town is talking . . .Ill 
go and lie down. [Going] Гт free to-morrow . . . Oh, 
my God, what a relief ! Гт free to-morrow, Гт free the 
day after . . . Oh my head, my head . . . [Exit] 

Irina [alone] They've all gone. Nobody's left. 

[A concertina is being played in the street. The nurse 
sings] 

Natasha [in fur coat, and cap, steps across the living- 
room, followed by the maid] I'll be back in half an hour. 
I'm only going for a little drive. [Exit] 

Irina [alone in her misery] To Moscow! Moscow! 
Moscow! 

CURTAIN. 



ACT THREE. 

The room shared by Olga and Irina. Beds, screened 
off , back, right and left. It is a little after two in the 
morning. Back stage a fire-alarm is ringing; it has been 
going for some time. Nobody in the house has gone to 
bed yet. Masha is lying on a sofa dressed, as usual, in 
black. Enter Olga and Anfisa. 

Anfisa. They are now sitting underneath the stairs. 
I said to them, "Won't you come up," I said, "you can't 
go on like this," and they simply cried, "We don't know 
where father is." They said, "He may be burnt up by 
now." What an idea! And in the yard there are some 
people . . . also undressed. 

Olga [takes a dress out of the closet] Take this gray 
dress . . . and this . . . and the blouse as well . . . 
Take the skirt, too, nurse . . . My God ! How awful 
it is! The whole of the Kirsanovsky district seems to 
have burned down. Take this . . . and this . . . 
[Throws clothes into her hands] The poor Vershinins are 
so frightened . . . Their house was nearly burnt. They 
ought to come here for the night . . . They shouldn't 
be allowed to go home . . . Poor Fedotik has lost every- 
thing, there's nothing left . . . 

Anfisa, Couldn't you call Ferapont, Olga dear? I 
can hardly manage . . . 

Olga [rings] They'll never answer . . . [At the door] 

50 



THE THREE SISTERS 51 

Come here, whoever it is ! [Through the open door is seen 
a window, red with flame; a fire-engine is heard passing 
the house'] How awful this is. And how sick I am of it! 
[Ferapont enters] Take these things down . . . The 
Kolotilin girls are below . . . and let them have them. 
This, too . . . 

Ferapont. Yes'm. In the year twelve Moscow, too, 
was in flames. God! The Frenchmen were surprised. 

Olga. Go on, go on . . . 

Ferapont. Yes'm. [Exit] 

Olga. Nurse, dear, give them all we have. We 
don't need anything. Give it all to them, nurse . . . 
I'm tired, I can hardly stand on my legs . . . The Ver- 
shinins mustn't be allowed to go home . . . The girls 
can sleep in the drawing-room, and Alexander Ignateie- 
vitch can go downstairs to the Baron's flat . . . Fedotik 
can go there, too, or else into our living-room . . . The 
doctor is drunk, beastly drunk, as if on purpose, so no- 
body can go to him. Vershinin's wife, too, may go into 
the drawing-room. 

Anfisa [tired] Olga, dear girl, don't dismiss me! 
Don't dismiss me! 

Olga. You're talking nonsense, nurse. Nobody is dis- 
missing you. 

Anfisa [puts Olga J s head against her breast] My dear, 
precious girl, I'm working, I'm toiling away . . . I'm 
growing weak, and they'll all say go away ! And where 
shall I go? Where? I'm eighty. Eighty-one years 
old . . . 

Olga. You sit down, nurse dear . . . You're tired, 



52 THE THREE SISTERS 

poor darling . . . [Makes her sit down] Rest, dear. 
You're so pale! 

[Natasha comes in"] 

Natasha. They say that a committee to assist the 
sufferers from the fire must be formed at once. What do 
you think of that? It's a splendid idea. Of course, the 
poor ought to be helped ; it's the duty of the rich. Bobby 
and little Sophie are sleeping, sleeping as if nothing had 
happened. There's such a lot of people here, the place 
is full of them, wherever you go. There's influenza in 
the town now. I'm afraid the children will catch it. 

Olga [not listening to her] From this room we can't 
see the fire, it's peaceful here . . . 

Natasha. Yes ... I suppose I'm all untidy. [Be- 
fore the looking-glass] They say I'm growing stout . . . 
It isn't true! Certainly it isn't! Masha's asleep; the 
poor thing is tired out . . . [Coldly, to Anfisa] Don't 
dare sit down in my presence! Get up! Out of this! 
[Exit Anfisa; a pause] I don't understand what makes 
you keep that old woman! 

Olga [confusedly] Excuse me, I don't understand, 
either . . . 

Natasha. She's no good here. She comes from the 
country, she ought to live there . . . Spoiling her, I 
call it! I like order in the house! We don't want any 
unnecessary people here. [Caresses her cheek] You're 
tired, poor thing! Our head mistress is tired! And 
when my little Sophie grows up and goes to school I 
shall be so afraid of you. 

Olga. I shan't be head mistress. 



THE THREE SISTERS 53 

Natasha. They'll appoint you, Olga. It's settled. 

Olga. I'll refuse the post. I can't . . . I'm not 
strong enough . . . [Drinks a glass of water] You were 
so rude to nurse just now . . . Fm sorry. I can't stand 
it . . . everything seems dark before my eyes . . . 

Natasha [excited] Forgive me, Olga, forgive me . . . 
I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. 

[Masha gets up> takes a pillow and goes out angrily] 

Olga. Try to understand, my dear ... we have 
been brought up in an unusual way, perhaps, but I really 
can't stand it. Such behavior has a terrible effect on me, 
I get ill . . . It makes me so despondent ! 

Natasha. Forgive me, forgive me . . . [Kisses her] 

Olga. The least bit of rudeness, the slightest dis- 
courtesy, upsets me. 

Natasha. I often say too much, it's true, but you 
must agree, dear, that she might just as well live in the 
country. 

Olga. She has been with us for thirty years. 

Natasha. But she can't do any work now. Either I 
don't understand you, or you don't want to understand 
me. She's not able to work, she only sleeps or sits around. 

Olga. Very well ! Let her sit around ! 

Natasha [surprised] What do you mean ? She's only 
a servant. [Crying] I don't understand you, Olga. I've 
got a nurse, a wet-nurse, we've a cook, a housemaid . . . 
what do we want that old woman for as well? What 
good is she? [Fire-alarm back stage] 

Olga. I've grown ten years older to-night. 

Natasha. We must come to an agreement, Olga. 



54 THE THREE SISTERS 

Your place is the school, mine — the home. You de- 
vote yourself to teaching, I, to the household. And if I 
talk about servants, then I know what I am talking about ; 
I know what I am talking about . . . And to-morrow 
there's to be no more of that old thief, that old hag . . . 
[Stamping her foot] That witch ! And don't you dare 
annoy me! Don't you dare! [Stopping short] Really, 
if you don't move downstairs, we shall always be quar- 
reling. This is awful. 

[Enter Kuligin] 

Kuligin. Where's Masha? It's time we went home. 
The fire seems to be burning out. [Stretches himself] 
Only one block has burnt down, but there was such a 
wind that it seemed at first the whole town was going 
tip in flames. [Sits] I'm tired. My dear Olga ... I 
often think that if it hadn't been for Masha, I should 
have married you. You are such a kindly girl ... I am 
absolutely tired out. [Listens] 

Olga. What is it? 

Kuligin. The doctor, of course, has been drinking 
hard; he's terribly drunk. He might have done it on 
purpose! [Gets up] He seems to be coming here . . . 
Do you hear him? Yes, here . . . [Laughs] What a 
man . . . really . . . I'll hide. [Goes to the closet, and 
hides in the corner] What a scoundrel! 

Olga. He hasn't touched a drop for two years, and 
now he suddenly goes and gets drunk . . . 

[Retires with Natasha to the back of the room. Tche- 
butikin enters; apparently sober, he stops, looks round, 
then goes to the wash-stand and begins to wash his hands] 



THE THREE SISTERS 55 

Tchebutikin [morosely] Devil take them all . . . 
take them all . . . They think I'm a doctor and can cure 
everything, and I know absolutely nothing, I've forgotten 
all I ever knew, I remember nothing, absolutely nothing. 
[Olga and Natasha leave, unnoticed by him] Devil take 
it. Last Wednesday I attended a woman in Zosip — and 
she died, and it's my fault that she died. Yes ... I 
used to know a certain amount five-and-twenty years ago, 
but I don't remember anything now. Nothing. Per- 
haps I'm not really a man, and am only pretending that 
I have arms and legs and a head; perhaps I don't exist 
at all, and only imagine that I walk, and eat, and sleep. 
[Cries] Oh, if only I didn't exist! [Stops crying; mor- 
osely] The devil only knows . . . Day before yesterday 
they were talking at the club; they mentioned Shake- 
speare, Voltaire . . .I've never read, never read at all, 
and I made believe as if I had. So did the others. Oh, 
how beastly! How petty! And then I remembered the 
woman whom I attended and who died on Wednes- 
day . . . and I couldn't get her out of my thoughts, and 
everything in my soul turned crooked, nasty, wretched 
... So I drank to forget . . . 

[Irina, Vershinin and Tuzenbach enter; Tuzenbach is 
wearing new and fashionable civilian clothes] 

Irina. Let's sit down. Nobody will come in here. 

Vershinin. The whole town would have been de- 
stroyed if it hadn't been for the soldiers. Good men! 
[Rubs his hands appreciatively] Splendid people! Oh, 
what a fine lot ! 

Kuligin [coming up to him] What's the time? 



56 THE THREE SISTERS 

Tuzenbach. It's after three now. Dawn is here. 

Irina. They are all sitting in the living-room, nobody 
thinks of leaving. And that Solyony of yours is sitting 
there . . . [To Tchebutikin] Hadn't you better go to 
sleep, doctor? 

Tchebutikin. It's all right . . . thank you • • • 
[Combs his beard] 

Kuligin [laughs] Your tongue is a bit thick, eh, Ivan 
Romanovitch! [Pats him on the shoulder] Good man! 
In vino Veritas, the ancients used to say. 

Tuzenbach. They keep on asking me to arrange a 
concert in aid of the sufferers. 

Irina. As if one could do anything . . . 

Tuzenbach. It might be arranged, if necessary. In 
my opinion, Maria Sergeievna is an excellent pianist. 

Kuligin. Yes, excellent! 

Irina. She's forgotten everything. She hasn't played 
for three years ... or four. 

Tuzenbach. In this town absolutely nobody under- 
stands music, not a soul, except myself, and I assure you 
on my word of honor that Maria Sergeievna plays beau- 
tifully, almost with genius. 

Kuligin. You are right, Baron. I'm awfully fond of 
Masha. She's very fine. 

Tuzenbach. To be able to play so beautifully and 
to realize at the same time that nobody, nobody can 
understand you ! 

Kuligin [sighs] Yes . . . But is it proper for her 
to appear in a concert? [Pause] You see, I don't know 
anything! Perhaps it will be all right. I admit that 



THE THREE SISTERS 57 

our director is a kindly fellow, very kindly indeed, very 
brainy. But his views are rather conventional . . . Of 
course it is none of his business but still, if you wish, 
perhaps I'd better talk to him. 

[Tchebutikin takes a porcelain clock into his hands and 
examines it] 

Vershinin. I got so dirty during the fire, I don't 
look like anybody on earth. [Pause] Yesterday, I hap- 
pened to overhear casually that they desire to transfer our 
brigade to some distant place. Some said to Poland, 
others, to Chita. 

Tuzenbach. I heard so, too. Well, if it is so, the 
town will be quite empty. 

Irina. And we'll go away, too! 

Tchebutikin [drops the clock which breaks to pieces] 
To pieces! 

[A pause; everybody is pained and confused] 

Kuligin [gathering up the pieces] To smash such an 
expensive thing ! — Oh, Ivan Romanovitch, Ivan Roman- 
ovitch ! You'll get a zero mark in behavior ! 

Irina. That clock used to belong to our late mother. 

Tchebutikin. Perhaps . . . To your mother, your 
mother. Perhaps I didn't break it; it only looks as if I 
broke it. Perhaps we only think that we exist, when 
really we don't. I don't know anything, nobody knows 
anything. [At the door] What are you looking at? 
Natasha has a little romance with Protopopoff, and you 
don't see it . . . There you sit and see nothing, and 
Natasha has a little romance with Protopopoff . . . 
[Sings] Won't you please accept this date . . . [Exit] 



5 8 THE THREE SISTERS 

Vershinin. Yes. [Laughs] How strange everything 
really is ! [Pause] When the fire broke out, I hurried off 
home; when I get there I see the house is whole, unin- 
jured, and in no danger, but my two girls are standing by 
the door in just their underclothes, their mother isn't 
there, the crowd is excited, horses and dogs are running 
about, and the girl's faces are so agitated, terrified, be- 
seeching, and I don't know what else. My heart hurt me, 
when I saw those faces. My God, I thought, what these 
girls will have to put up with if they live long! I caught 
them up and ran, and still kept on thinking the one 
thing: what they will have to live through in this world! 
[Fire-alarm; a pause] I come here and find their mother 
shouting and angry. [Masha enters with a pillow and 
sits on the sofa] And when my girls were standing by 
the door in just their underclothes, and the street was red 
from the fire, there was a dreadful noise, and I thought 
that something of the sort used to happen many years ago 
when an enemy made a sudden attack, and looted, and 
burned . . . And at the same time what a difference 
there really is between the present and the past! And 
when a little more time has gone by, in two or three 
hundred years perhaps, people will look at our present 
life with just the same fear, and the same contempt, and 
the whole past will seem clumsy and dull, and very un- 
comfortable, and strange. Oh, indeed, what a life there 
will be, what a life! [Laughs] Forgive me, I've dropped 
into philosophy again. Please let me continue. I do long 
to philosophize, I'm in just that sort of mood. [Pause] 
As if they are all asleep. As I was saying : what a life 



THE THREE SISTERS 59 

there will be! Only just imagine . . . There are only 
three persons like yourselves in the town just now, but in 
future generations there will be more and more, and still 
more, and the time will come when everything will change 
and become as you would have it, people will live as you 
do, and then you, too, will go out of date; people will be 
born who are better than you . . . [Laughs] Yes, to-day, 
I am in a most peculiar mood. I am devilishly keen on 
living . . . [Sings] "The power of love is known to 
all the world, Great good grows out of it — " [Laughs] 

Masha. Tra-ta-ta? ... 

Vershinin. Tra-ta-ta . . . 

Masha. Tra-ra-ram-tam-tam ? 

Vershinin. Tra-ra-ram-tam-tam. [Laughs] 

[Enter Fedotik] 

Fedotik [dancing] Гт burnt out, Гт burnt out! 
Down to the ground! [Laughter] 

Irina. I don't see anything funny about it. Is every- 
thing burnt? 

Fedotik [laughs] Absolutely. Nothing left at all. 
The guitar's burnt, and the photographs are burnt, and 
all my correspondence . . . And I was going to make 
you a present of a note-book, and that's burnt, too. 

[Solyony comes in] 

Irina. No, you can't come here, Vassily Vassilievitch. 
Please go away. 

Solyony. Why can the Baron come here and not I ? 

Vershinin. We really must go. How's the fire? 

Solyony. They say it's dying down. No, I absolutely 



6o THE THREE SISTERS 

don't see why the Baron can, and not I ! [Scents his 
hands'] 

Vershinin. Tra-ra-ram-tam-tam ? 

Masha. Tra-ra-ram-tam-tam. 

Vershinin [laughs to Solyony] Let's go into the 
living-room. 

Solyony. Very well, we'll make a note of it. "If I 
should try to make this clear, the geese would be annoyed, 
I fear." [Looks at Tuzenbach] There, there, there . • . 

[Goes out with Vershinin and Fedotik] 

Irina. How Solyony smoked! . . . [In surprise] 
The Baron's asleep! Baron! Baron! 

Tuzenbach [waking] I am tired, I must say . . . 
The brickworks . . . No, I'm not raving, I mean it; 
I'm going to start work soon at the brickworks . . . 
I've already talked it over. [Tenderly , to Irina] You're 
so pale, and beautiful, and charming . . . Your paleness 
pierces the dark air like light . . . You are sad, dis- 
pleased with life . . . Oh, come with me, let's go and 
work together! 

Masha. Nikolai Lvovitch, go away from here. 

Tuzenbach [laughs] Are you here? I didn't see you. 
[Kisses Irina' s hand] Good-bye, I'm going ... I look 
at you now and I remember, as if it was long ago, your 
birthday when you, cheerfully and merrily, were talking 
about the joys of labor! . . . And how happy life seemed 
to me, then! What has happened to it now? [Kisses 
her hand] There are tears in your eyes. Go to bed now ; 
it is already daybreak . . . morning is here ... If 
only I was allowed to give my life for you ! 



THE THREE SISTERS 61 

Masha. Nikolai Lvovitch, go away! Really — 

Tuzenbach. Гт off. [Exit] 

Masha [lies down] Are you asleep, Fyodor? 

Kuligin. Eh ? 

Masha. Shouldn't you go home? 

Kuligin. My dear Masha, my darling Masha . . . 

Irina. She's tired. You might let her rest, Fedia. 

Kuligin. Г11 go at once. My wife is good, fine . . . 
I love you, my only one . . . 

Masha [angrily] A mo, amasj amai, amamus, amatis, 
amant. 

Kuligin [laughs] No, she is really wonderful. IVe 
been your husband seven years, and it seems as if I mar- 
ried only yesterday. On my word. No, you really are a 
wonderful woman. Гт pleased, Гт pleased, Гт 
pleased ! 

Masha. Гт bored, Гт bored, Гт bored . . • 
[Sits up] But I can't get it out of my head . . . It's 
simply disgraceful. It has been gnawing away at me . . . 
I can't keep silent. I mean about Andrei . . . He has 
mortgaged this house at the bank . . . and his wife has 
all the money ; but the house doesn't belong to him alone, 
but to the four of us! He ought to know that, if he's an 
honorable man. 

Kuligin. What's the use, Masha? Andrei is in debt 
all round ; well, let him do as he pleases. 

Masha. It's disgraceful, anyway. [Lies down] 

Kuligin. You and I are not poor. I work, teach my 
classes, give private lessons . . , lama plain, honest 
man . . . Omnia me a me cum porto, as they say. 



62 THE THREE SISTERS 

Masha. I don't want anything, but the unfairness 
of it disgusts me. [Pause] You go, Fyodor. 

Kuligin [kisses her] You are tired, just rest for half 
an hour, and I'll sit and wait for you. Sleep . . . 
[Going] I'm pleased, Fm pleased, Fm pleased . • . 
[Exit] 

Irina. Yes, really, our Andrei has lost weight; how 
mediocre and old and trite he has become through that 
woman's influence! Really — formerly he wished to 
be a professor, and yesterday he was boasting that at last 
he had been made a member of the district council. He 
is a member, and Protopopoff is chairman . . . The 
whole town talks and laughs about it, and he alone knows 
and sees nothing . . . And now everybody's gone to 
watch the fire, but he sits alone in his room and pays no 
attention, only just plays on his violin. [Nervously] 
Oh, it's awful, awful, awful. [Weeps] I can't, I can't 
bear it any longer! ... I can't, I can't! . . . 

[Olga comes in and puts in order her little table. Irina 
is sobbing loudly] Throw me out, throw me out, I 
can't bear any more! 

Olga [alarmed] What is it, what is it? Dear! 

Irina [sobbing] Where? Where has everything gone? 
Where is it all? Oh, my God, my God! I've forgotten 
everything, everything ... I don't remember what is the 
Italian for window, or, well, for ceiling ... I forget 
everything, every day I forget it, and life passes and will 
never return, and we'll never go to Moscow ... I 
see that we'll never go . . . 

Olga. Dear, dear . . . 



THE THREE SISTERS 63 

Irina [controlling herself] Oh, I am unhappy ... I 
can't work, I shan't work. Enough, enough! I used to 
be a telegraph operator, now I work at the town council 
offices, and I have nothing but hate and contempt for all 
they give me to do . . . I am already twenty-three, I 
have already been at work for a long while, and my brain 
has dried up, and Гѵе grown thin, plain, old, and there is 
no relief of any sort, and time goes and it seems all the 
while as if I were going away from the real, the beautiful 
life, farther and farther away, down some precipice. I'm 
in despair and I can't understand how it is that I am still 
alive, that I haven't killed myself. 

Olga. Don't cry, dear girl, don't cry ... I suffer, 
too. 

Irina. I'm not crying, not crying . . . Enough . . . 
Look, I'm not crying any more. Enough . . . enough! 

Olga. Dear, I tell you as a sister and a friend, if you 
care for my advice, marry the Baron. [Irina cries softly] 
You respect him, you think highly of him . . . It is true 
that he is not handsome, but he is so honorable and 
clean . . . people don't marry for love, but for the sake 
of duty. I think so, at any rate, and I'd marry without 
being in love. Whoever he is, I should marry him, as 
long as he is a decent man. Even if he is old . . . 

Irina. I was always waiting until we should be 
settled in Moscow ; there I would have met my true love ; 
I used to dream of him, and love him . . . But it's all 
turned out to be nonsense, all nonsense . . . 

Olga [embraces her sister] My dear, beautiful sister, 
I understand everything; when Baron Nikolai Lvovitch 



64 THE THREE SISTERS 

left the army and came to us in correct dress, he seemed 
so bad-looking to me that I even started crying . . . He 
asked, "What are you crying for?" How could I tell 
him ! But if God meant him to marry you, I would be 
happy. That would be different, quite different. 

[Natasha with a candle walks across the stage from 
right to left without speaking] 

Masha [sitting up] She walks as if she had set some- 
thing on fire. 

Olga. Masha, you're silly, you're the silliest of the 
family. Please forgive me for saying so. [Pause] 

Masha. I must make a confession, dear sisters. My 
soul is in pain. I will confess to you, and never again 
to anybody . . . I'll tell you this minute. [Softly] It's 
my secret but you must know everything ... I can't be 
silent . . . [Pause] I love, I love ... I love that 
man . . . You saw him only just now . . . Why don't 
I say it ... in one word. I love Vershinin. 

Olga [goes behind her screen] Stop that, I won't even 
listen to you ! 

Masha. What am I to do? [Takes her head in her 
hands] First he seemed queer to me, then I was sorry for 
him . . . then I fell in love with him . . . fell in love 
with his voice, his words, his misfortune, his two 
daughters. 

Olga [behind the screen] I'm not listening. You may 
talk any nonsense you like, it will be all the same, I shan't 
hear. 

Masha. Oh, Olga, you are foolish. I am in love — 
that means that is to be my fate. It means that is to be 
my lot . . . And he loves me . . . It is all awful. Yes ; 



THE THREE SISTERS 65 

it isn't good, is it? [Takes Irinds hand and draws her 
to her] Oh, my dear . . . How are we to go through 
with our lives, what is to become of us? . . . When you 
read a novel it all seems so easy and plain, but when you 
fall in love yourself, then you learn that nobody knows 
anything, and each must decide for himself . . . My 
dear ones, my sisters . . . Гѵе confessed, now I shall 
keep silence . . . Like the lunatics in Gogol's story, I'm 
going to be silent . . . silent . . . 

[Andrei enters, followed by Ferapont] 

Andrei [angrily] What do you want? I don't under- 
stand. 

Ferapont [at the door J impatiently] I've already told 
you ten times, Andrei Sergeievitch. 

Andrei. In the first place I'm not Andrei Sergeievitch, 
but your honor. 

Ferapont. The firemen, sir, ask if they can cut across 
your garden to the river. Else they have to go all the 
way round, all the way round; it's a nuisance. 

Andrei. All right. Tell them it's all right. [Exit 
Ferapont] I'm tired of them. Where is Olga? [Olga 
comes out from behind the screen] I came to you for the 
key of the closet. I lost my own. You have a little key. 
[Olga gives him the key; Irina goes behind her screen; 
pause] What a huge fire ! It's going down now. Hang 
it all, that Ferapont made me so angry that I talked non- 
sense to him . . . Your honor, indeed . . . [A pause] 
Why are you so silent, Olga? [Pause] It's time you 
stopped all that nonsense and behaved as if you were 
properly alive . . . You are here, Masha. Irina is here. 
Well, since we're all here, let's come to a complete under- 



66 THE THREE SISTERS 

standing, once and for all. What have you against me? 
What is it? 

Olga. Please don't, Andrei dear. We'll talk to- 
morrow. [Excited] What an awful night! 

Andrei [much confused] Don't excite yourself. I ask 
you in perfect calmness; what have you against me? Tell 
me straight. 

Vershinin's Voice. Tra-ra-ram-tam-tam ! 

Masha [stands; loudly] Tra-ta-ta! [To Olga] Good- 
bye, Olga, God bless you. [Goes behind screen and 
kisses Irina] Sleep well . . . Good-bye, Andrei. Go 
away now, they're tired . • . you can explain to-mor- 
row . . . [Exit] 

Olga. Let's postpone this until to-morrow, Andrei! 
[Goes behind the screen] It's time to go to bed. 

Andrei. I'll only say this and go. At once ... In 
the first place, you have something against Natasha, my 
wife; I've noticed it since the very day of my marriage. 
Natasha is a beautiful and honest creature, straight and 
honorable — that's my opinion. I love and respect my 
wife; understand it, I respect her, and I insist that others 
respect her, too. I repeat, she's an honest and honorable 
person, and all your disapproval is simply silly . . • 
[Pause] In the second place, you seem to be annoyed 
because I am not a professor, and am not engaged in study. 
But I work for the zemstvo, I am a member of the dis- 
trict council, and I consider my service as worthy and as 
high as the service of science. I am a member of the dis- 
trict council, and I am proud of it, if you want to 
know . • . [Pause] In the third place, I have still this 
to say . . . that I have mortgaged the house without ob- 



THE THREE SISTERS 67 

taming your permission . . . For that I am to blame, and 
ask to be forgiven. My debts led me into doing it . . . 
thirty-five thousand ... I do not play at cards any 
more, I stopped long ago, but the chief thing I have to say 
in my defense is that you girls receive a pension, and I 
don't ... my wages, so to speak . . . [Pause] 

Kuligin [at the door] Is Masha there? [Excitedly] 
Where is she? It's queer . . . [Exit] 

Andrei. They don't hear. Natasha is a splendid, 
honest person. [Walks about in silence, then stops] When 
I married I thought we should be happy ... all of 
us . . . But, my God . . . [Weeps] My dear, dear 
sisters, don't believe me, don't believe me . . . [Exit] 

[Fire-alarm. The stage is empty] 

Irina [behind her screen] Olga, who's knocking on 
the floor? 

Olga. It's Doctor Ivan Romanovitch. He's drunk. 

Irina. What a restless night ! [Pause] Olga! [Looks 
out] Did you hear? They are taking the brigade away 
from us; it's going to be transferred to some place far 
away. 

Olga. It's only a rumor. 

Irina. Then we shall be left alone . . . Olga! 

Olga. Well? 

Irina. My dear, darling sister, I esteem, I highly 
value the Baron, he's a splendid man; I'll marry him, 
I'll consent, only let's go to Moscow! I implore you, 
let's go ! There's nothing better than Moscow on earth ! 
Let's go, Olga, let's go! 

CURTAIN. 

/ 



ACT FOUR. 

The old garden at the house of the Prozoroffs. There 
is a long avenue of firs, at the end of which the river can 
be seen. There is a forest on the far side of the river. 
On the right is the terrace of the house: bottles and 
tumblers are on a table here; it is evident that champagne 
has just been drunk. It is midday. Every now and again 
passers-by walk across the garden, from the road to the 
river; five soldiers go past rapidly. Tchebutikin, in a 
comfortable frame of mind which does not desert him 
throughout the act, sits in an armchair in the garden, 
waiting to be called. He wears a peaked cap and has a 
stick. Irina, Kuligin with a cross hanging from his neck 
and without his mustaches, and Tuzenbach are standing 
on the terrace seeing off Fedotik and Rode, who are com- 
ing down into the garden; both officers are in service 
uniform. 

Tuzenbach [exchanges kisses with Fedotik'] You're a 
good sort, we got on so well together. [Exchanges kisses 
with Rode] Once again . . . Good-bye, old man ! 

Irina. Au revoir! 

Fedotik. It isn't au revoir, it's good-bye; we'll never 
meet again! 

Kuligin. Who knows! [Wipes his eyes; smiles] 
Here I've started crying! 

Irina. We'll meet again sometime. 

Fedotik. After ten years — or fifteen ? We'll hardly 

68 



THE THREE SISTERS 69 

know one another then; we'll say, "How do you do?" 
coldly . . . [Takes a snapshot] Keep still . . . Once 
more, for the last time. 

Rode [embracing Tuzenbach] We shan't meet again 
• . . [Kisses Irina's hand] Thank you for everything, for 
everything ! 

Fedotik [grieved] Don't be in such a hurry! 

Tuzenbach. We shall meet again, if God wills it. 
Write to us. Be sure to write. 

Rode [looking round the garden] Good-bye, trees! 
[Shouts] Yo-ho! [Pause] Good-bye, echo! 

Kuligin. Best wishes. Go and get yourselves wives 
there in Poland . . . Your Polish wife will embrace you 
and call you "kochanku!" [Laughs] 

Fedotik [looking at the time] There's less than an 
hour left. Solyony is the only one of our battery who is 
going on the barge ; the rest of us are going with the main 
body. Three batteries are leaving to-day, another three 
to-morrow and then the town will be quiet and peaceful. 

Tuzenbach. And terribly dull. 

Rode. And where is Maria Sergeievna? 

Kuligin. Masha is in the garden. 
Fedotik. We'd like to say good-bye to her. 
Rode. Good-bye, I must go, or else I'll commence 
weeping . . . [Quickly embraces Kuligin and Tuzenbach, 
and kisses Irinds hand] We've been so happy here . . . 
Fedotik [to Kuligin] Here's a keepsake for you . . . 
a note-book with a pencil . . . We'll go to the river from 
here . . . [They go aside and both look round] 
Rode [shouts] Yo-ho! 



70 THE THREE SISTERS 

Kuligin [shouts] Good-bye. 

[In the background Fedotik and Rode meet Masha; 
they say good-bye and go out with her] 

Irina. They've gone . . . [Sits on the bottom step 
of the terrace] 

Tchebutikin. And they forgot to say good-bye to 
me. 

Irina. Why so? 

Tchebutikin. I just forgot, somehow. Though I 
shall see them again soon. I'm going to-morrow. Yes 
. . . just one day left. I shall be retired in a year, then 
Г11 come here again and finish my life near you. Гѵе 
only one year before I receive my pension . . . [Puts 
one newspaper into his pocket and takes out another] 
111 come here to you and change my life radically . . . 
Ill be so quiet ... so agree . . . agreeable, respect- 
able . . . 

Irina. Yes, you ought to change your life, dear man, 
somehow or other. 

Tchebutikin. Yes, I feel it. [Sings softly] "Tarara- 
boom-deay ..." 

Kuligin. We won't reform Ivan Romanovitch ! We 
won't reform him! 

Tchebutikin. If only you would teach me how! 
Then I would reform! 

Irina. Fyodor has shaved his mustache! I can't 
bear to look at him. 

Kuligin. Well, what about it? 

Tchebutikin. I could tell you what your face looks 
like now, but it wouldn't be polite. 



THE THREE SISTERS 71 

Kuligin. Well! It's the custom, it's the modus 
vivendi. Our Director is clean-shaven, and so I, too, 
when I received my inspectorship, had my mustaches re- 
moved. Nobody likes it, but it's all the same to me. I'm 
satisfied. Whether I have mustaches or not, I'm satis- 
fied .. . [Sits] 

[In the background Andrei is wheeling a perambulator 
with a sleeping child] 

Irina. Ivan Romanovitch, be a darling. I'm awfully 
worried. You were out on the boulevard last night; tell 
me, what happened? 

Tchebutikin. What happened? Nothing. Quite a 
trifling matter. [Reads paper] Of no importance ! 

Kuligin. They say that Solyony and the Baron met 
yesterday on the boulevard near the theatre . . . 

Tuzenbach. Stop! Really — [Waves his hand and 
goes into the house] 

Kuligin. Near the theatre . . . Solyony behaved 
offensively to the Baron, who lost his temper and said 
something nasty . . . 

Tchebutikin. I don't know. It's all nonsense. 

Kuligin. At some seminary or other a master wrote 
"nonsense" on an essay, and the student couldn't make 
the letters out — thought it was some sort of a Latin 
word. [Laughs] Awfully funny, that. They say that 
Solyony is in love with Irina and hates the Baron . . . 
That's quite natural. Irina is a very nice girl. She's 
like Masha. She's so pensive . . . Only, Irina, your 
character is more gentle. Though Masha's character, 
too, is very good. I'm very fond of Masha. 



7 2 THE THREE SISTERS 

[Shouts of "Yo-ho!" are heard behind the stage] 

Irina [shudders] Everything seems to frighten me to- 
day. [Pause] I have everything ready, and I send my 
things off after dinner. The Baron and I will be mar- 
ried to-morrow, and to-morrow we go away to the brick- 
works, and the next day I go to the school, and the new 
life begins. God will help me! When I took my ex- 
amination for the teacher's post, I actually wept for joy 
and gratitude . . . [Pause] The cart will be here in a 
minute for my things . . . 

Kuligin. Somehow or other, all this doesn't seem 
at all real. As if it were all ideas, and nothing really 
actual. Still, with all my soul I wish you happiness. 

Tchebutikin [with deep feeling] My splendid . . . 
my dear, precious girl . . . You've made some progress, 
I won't catch up with you. Fm left behind like a 
migrant bird grown old, and unable to fly. Fly, my dear, 
fly, and God be with you! [Pause] It's a pity you 
shaved your mustaches, Fyodor Ilyitch. 

Kuligin. Oh, forget it! [Sighs] To-day the sol- 
diers will be gone, and everything will continue as in 
the old days. Say what you will, Masha is a good, 
honest woman. I love her very much, and am grateful 
for my fate. People have such different fates. There's 
a Kosireff who works in the excise department here. He 
was at school with me; he was expelled from the fifth 
class of the High School for being entirely unable to 
understand ut consecutivum. He's awfully hard up now 
and in very poor health, and when I meet him I say to 
him, "How do you do, ut consecutivum" "Yes," he 



THE THREE SISTERS 73 

says, "precisely consecutivum . . ." and coughs. But 
Гѵе been successful all my life, Fm happy, and I even 
have a Stanislaus Cross, of the second class, and now I 
myself teach others that ut consecutivum. Of course, 
Fma clever man, much cleverer than many, but happi- 
ness doesn't lie only in that. . . . 

["The Maiden s Prayer' is being played on the piano 
in the house"] 

Irina. To-morrow night I shan't hear that 
"Maiden's Prayer" any more, and I shan't be meeting 
Protopopoff. [Pause] Protopopoff is sitting there in the 
drawing room; and he came to-day . . . 

Kuligin. Hasn't the head-mistress come yet? 

Irina. No. She has been sent for. If you only 
knew how difficult it is for me to live alone, without 
Olga . . . She lives at the High School; she, a head- 
mistress, busy all day with her affairs and I'm alone, 
bored, with nothing to do, and hate the room I live in 
. . . I've made up my mind: if I can't live in Moscow, 
then it must come to this. It's fate. It can't be helped. 
It's all the will of God, that's the truth. Nikolai 
Lvovitch proposed to me. Well? I thought it over 
and accepted. He's a good man . . . it's quite remark- 
able how good he is . . . And suddenly my soul took 
wings, I became happy, and light-hearted, and once again 
the desire for work, work, came over me . . . Only 
something happened yesterday, some secret dread has 
been hanging over me . . . 

Tchebutikin. Rubbish. Nonsense. 

Natasha [at the window] The head-mistress. 



74 THE THREE SISTERS 

Kuligin. The head-mistress is here. Let's go. 
[Exit with Irina into the house'] 

Tchebutikin [reads his paper and hums softly] . . . 
"Tara-ra . . . boom-deay." 

[Masha approaches, Andrei is wheeling a perambu- 
lator in the background] 

Masha. Here you sit, doing nothing. 

Tchebutikin. What then? 

Masha [sits] Nothing . . . [Pause] Did you love 
my mother? 

Tchebutikin. Very much. 

Masha. And did she love you ? 

Tchebutikin [after a pause] I don't remember that. 

Masha. Is my man here? When our cook Martha 
used to ask about her policeman, she called him "my 
man." Is he here? 

Tchebutikin. Not yet. 

Masha. When you take your happiness in little 
bits, in snatches, and then lose it, as I have done, you 
gradually grow coarser, more bitter. [Points to her 
breast] I'm boiling in here . . . [Looks at Andrei with 
the perambulator] There's our brother Andrei . . . All 
our hopes in him have gone. There was once a great 
bell, a thousand persons were hoisting it, much money 
and labor had been spent on it, when it suddenly fell 
and was broken. Suddenly, for no particular reason 
. . . Andrei is like that . . . 

Andrei. When are they going to stop making such 
a noise in the house? It's awful. 

Tchebutikin. They won't be much longer. [Looks 



THE THREE SISTERS 75 

at his watch'] My watch is very old-fashioned, it strikes 
the hours . . . [Winds the watch and makes it strike] 
The first, second, and fifth batteries are to leave at one 
o'clock precisely. {Pause] And I go to-morrow. 

Andrei. Forever? 

Tchebutikin. I don't know. Perhaps I'll return 
in a year. The devil only knows . . . it's all one . . . 

[Somewhere a harp and violin are being played] 

Andrei. The town will grow empty. It will be 
as if they put a cover over it. [Pause] Something hap- 
pened yesterday near the theatre. The whole town knows 
of it, but I don't. 

Tchebutikin. Nothing. A silly little affair. 
Solyony annoyed the Baron, who lost his temper and 
insulted him, and so at last Solyony had to challenge 
him. [Looks at his watch] It's about time, I think . . . 
At half-past twelve, in the public wood, the one you 
can see from here across the river . . . Piff-paff. 
[Laughs] Solyony thinks he's Lermontoff, and even 
writes verses. That's all very well, but this is his third 
duel. 

Mash a. Whose? 

Tchebutikin. Solyony's. 

Masha. And the Baron? 

Tchebutikin. What about the Baron? [Pause] 

Masha. Everything's all muddled up in my head 
. . . But I say it should not be allowed. He might 
wound the Baron or even kill him. 

Tchebutikin. The Baron is a good man, but one 
Baron more or less — what difference does it make? It's 



76 THE THREE SISTERS 

all the same! [Beyond the garden somebody shouts 
"Co-ee! Hallo Г] You wait. That's Skvortsoff shout- 
ing; one of the seconds. He's in a boat. [Pause] 

Andrei. In my opinion it's simply immoral to fight 
a duel, or to witness one, even in the quality of a doctor. 

Tchebutikin. It only seems so . . . We don't 
exist, there's nothing on earth, we don't really live, it 
only seems that we live. Does it matter, anyway! 

Masha. You talk and talk the whole day long . . . 
[Going] You live in a climate like this, where it might 
snow any moment, and there you talk . . „ [Stops] 
I won't go into the house, I can't . . . [Goes along the 
avenue] The migrant birds are already on the wing 
. . . [Looks up] Swans or geese. My dear, happy 
things . . . [Exit] 

Andrei. Our house will be empty. The officers will 
go away, you are going, my sister is getting married, 
and I alone will remain in the house. 

Tchebutikin. What about your wife? 

[Ferapont enters with some documents] 

Andrei. A wife's a wife. She's honest, well-bred, 
yes, and kind, but with all that there is still something 
about her that degenerates her into a petty, blind, even in 
some respects misshapen animal. In any case, she isn't 
a human being. I tell you as a friend, as the only man 
to whom I can lay bare my soul. I love Natasha, it's 
true, but sometimes she seems extraordinarily vulgar, 
and then I lose myself and can't understand why I love 
her so much, or, at any rate, used to love her . . . 

Tchebtikin [rises] I'm going away to-morrow, old 



THE THREE SISTERS 77 

chap, and perhaps we'll never meet again, so here's my 
advice. Put on your cap, take a stick in your hand, 
go ... go on and on, without looking round. And 
the farther you go, the better. 

[Solyony goes across the back of the stage with two 
officers; he catches sight of Tchebutikin, and turns to 
him, the officers go on] 

Solyony. Doctor, it's time. It's half-past twelve 
already. [Shakes hands with Andrei] 

Tchebutikin. Half a minute. I'm tired of the lot 
of you. [To Andrei] If anybody asks for me, say I'll 
be back soon . . . [Sighs] Oh, oh, oh! 

Solyony. "He didn't have the time to sigh. The 
bear sat on him heavily." [Goes up to him] What are 
you groaning for, old man? 

Tchebutikin. Stop it! 

Solyony. How's your health? 

Tchebutikin [angry] As smooth as oil! 

Solyony. The old man is unnecessarily excited. I 
won't go far, I'll just bring him down like a snipe. 
[Takes out his scent-bottle and scents his hands] I've 
poured out a whole bottle of scent to-day and they still 
smell ... of a dead body. [Pause] Yes . . . You re- 
member the poem 

"But he, the rebel seeks the storm, 
As if the storm will bring him rest . . ."? 

Tchebutikin. Yes. 

"He didn't have the time to sigh, 
The bear sat on him heavily." 



78 THE THREE SISTERS 

[Exit with Solyony. Shouts are heard. Andrei and 
Ferapont come in] 

Ferapont. Documents to sign . . . 

Andrei [irritated] Go away! Leave me! Please! 
[Goes away with the perambulator] 

Ferapont. That's what documents are for, to be 
signed. 

[Retires to back of stage. Enter Irina, with Tuzen- 
bach in a straw hat; Kuligin walks across the stage, 
shouting, "Co-ee, Masha, со-ееГ] 

Tuzenbach. He seems to be the only man in the 
town who is glad that the soldiers are going. 

Irina. One can understand that. [Pause] The town 
will be empty. 

Tuzenbach. My dear, I shall return soon, 

Irina. Where are you going? 

Tuzenbach. I must go into the town and then 
... see the others off. 

Irina. It's not true . . . Nikolai, why are you so 
absent-minded to-day? [Pause] What happened near the 
theatre yesterday? 

Tuzenbach [making an impatient gesture] In an 
hour I shall return and be with you again. [Kisses her 
hands] My darling . . . [Looking her closely in the 
face] It's five years now since I fell in love with you, 
and still I can't get used to it, and you seem to me to 
grow more and more beautiful. What lovely, wonderful 
hair! What eyes! I'm going to take you away to- 
morrow. We shall work, we shall be rich, my dreams 



THE THREE SISTERS 79 

will come true. You will be happy. There's only one 
thing, one thing only: you don't love me! 

Irina. It isn't in my power! I shall be your wife, 
I shall be true to you, and obedient, but I can't love you. 
What can I do! [Cries] I have never been in love in 
my life. Oh, I used to think so much of love. I have 
been thinking about it for so long, day and night, but 
my soul is like a costly piano which is locked and the 
key lost. [Pause] You seem so unhappy. 

Tuzenbach. I didn't sleep all night. There is 
nothing in my life so awful as to frighten me, only that 
lost key torments my soul and won't let me sleep. Say 
something to me. [Pause] Say something to me* . . . 

Irina. What can I say, what? 

Tuzenbach. Anything. 

Irina. Don't! Don't! [Pause] 

Tuzenbach. It is curious how silly trivial little 
things, sometimes for no apparent reason, seem to matter 
suddenly. At first you laugh at them, you think they 
are of no importance, you go on and you feel that you 
have not the strength to control yourself. Oh don't 
let's talk about it ! I am happy. It is as if for the first 
time in my life I see these firs, maples, beeches, and they 
all look at me inquisitively and wait. What beautiful 
trees and when you come to think of it, how beautiful 
life must be near them! [A shout of "co-eel" in the 
distance] It's time I went . . . There's a tree which 
has dried up but it still sways in the breeze with the 
others. And so it seems to me that if I die, I shall still 
take part in life one way or another. Good-bye, dear 



8o THE THREE SISTERS 

. . . [Kisses her hands] The papers which you gave 
me are on my table under the calendar. 

Irina. I am coming with you. 

Tuzenbach [nervously] No, no! [He goes quickly 
and stops in the avenue] Irina! 

Irina. What is it? 

Tuzenbach [not knowing what to say] I haven't 
had any coffee to-day. Tell them to make me some . . . 

[He goes out quickly. Irina stands deep in thought. 
Then she goes to the back of the stage and sits on a 
swing. Andrei comes in with the perambulator and 
Ferapont also appears] 

Ferapont. Andrei Sergeievitch, it isn't as if the docu- 
ments were mine, they are the government's. I didn't 
make them. 

Andrei. Oh, what has become of my past and where 
is it? I used to be young, happy, clever, I used to be 
able to think and frame clever ideas, the present and 
the future seemed to me full of hope. Why do we, 
almost before we have begun to live, become dull, gray, 
uninteresting, lazy, apathetic, useless, unhappy? . . . 
This town has already been in existence for two hundred 
years and it has a hundred thousand inhabitants, not 
one of whom is in any way different from the others. 
There has never been, now or at any other time, a single 
leader of men, a single scholar, an artist, a man of even 
the slightest eminence who might arouse envy or a 
passionate desire to be emulated. They only eat, drink, 
sleep, and then they die . . . more people are born and 
also eat, drink, sleep, and so as not to become half-witted 



THE THREE SISTERS 81 

out of sheer boredom, they try to make life many-sided 
with their beastly back-biting, vodka, cards, and litiga- 
tion. The wives deceive their husbands, and the hus- 
bands lie, and pretend they see nothing and hear nothing, 
and the evil influence irresistibly oppresses the children 
and the divine spark in them is extinguished, and they 
become just as pitiful corpses and just as much like one 
another as their fathers and mothers ... [Angrily to 
Ferapont] What do you want? 

Ferapont. What? Documents want signing. 

Andrei. I'm tired of you. 

Ferapont [handing him papers'] The hall-porter from 
the law courts said just now that in the winter there 
were two hundred degrees of frost in Petersburg. 

Andrei. The present is beastly, but when I think 
of the future, how good it is! I feel so light, so free; 
there is a light in the distance, I see freedom. I see 
myself and my children freeing ourselves from vanities, 
from kvass, from goose baked with cabbage, from after- 
dinner naps, from base idleness . . . 

Ferapont. He said that two thousand people were 
frozen to death. The people were frightened, he said. 
In Petersburg or Moscow, I don't remember where. 

Andrei [overcome by a tender emotion] My dear sis- 
ters, my beautiful sisters! [Crying] Masha, my sis- 
ter. . . . 

Natasha [at the window'] Who's talking so loudly 
out there? Is that you, Andrei? You'll wake little 
Sophie. // ne faut pas faire du bruit, Sophie dort deja. 
Vous etes un ours. [Angrily] If you want to talk, then 



8a THE THREE SISTERS 

give the perambulator and the baby to somebody else. 
Ferapont, take the perambulator! 

Ferapont. Yes'm. [Takes the perambulator] 

Andrei [confused] Fm speaking quietly. 

Natasha [at the window, nursing her boy] Bobby! 
Naughty Bobby! Bad little Bobby! 

Andrei [looking through the papers] All right, Fll 
look them over and sign if necessary, and you can take 
them back to the office. . . . [Goes into house reading 
papers; Ferapont takes the perambulator to the back of 
the garden] 

Natasha [at the window] Bobby, what's your 
mother's name? Dear, dear! And who's this? That's 
Aunt Olga. Say to your aunt, "How do you do, Olga!" 

[Two wandering musicians, a man and a girl, are 
playing on a violin and a harp. Vershinin, Olga, and 
Anfisa come out of the house and listen for a minute in 
silence; Irina walks up to them] 

Olga. Our garden might be a public thoroughfare, 
from the way people walk and ride across it. Nurse, 
give something to those musicians! 

Anfisa [gives money to the musicians] Go away with 
God's blessing! [The musicians bow and go away] A 
bitter sort of people. You don't play on a full stomach. 
[To Irina] How do you do, Irisha! [Kisses her] Well, 
little girl, here I am, still alive! Still alive! In the 
High School, together with little Olga, in her official 
apartments ... so the Lord has appointed for my old 
age. Sinful woman that I am, Fve never lived like that 
in my life before ... A large flat, government prop- 



THE THREE SISTERS 83 

erty, and Гѵе a whole room and bed to myself. All 
government property. I wake up at night and, oh God, 
and Holy Mother, there isn't a happier person than I ! 

Vershinin [looks at his match'] We are going soon, 
Olga Sergeievna. It's time for me to go. [Pause] I wish 
you all happiness — all happiness . . . Where's Maria 
Sergeievna ? 

Irina. She's somewhere in the garden. I'll go and 
look for her. 

Vershinin. If you'll be so kind. I haven't time. 

Anfisa. I'll go and look, too. [Shouts] Little Masha, 
co-ee! [Goes out with Irina down into the garden] 
Co-ee, co-ee! 

Vershinin. Everything comes to an end. And so 
we, too, must part. [Looks at his watch] The town 
gave us a sort ef farewell breakfast, we had champagne 
to drink and the mayor made a speech, and I ate and 
listened, but my soul was here all the time . . . [Looks 
round the garden] I have grown so used to you now. 

Olga. Shall we ever meet again? 

Vershinin. Probably not. [Pause] My wife and 
both my daughters will stay here another two months. 
If anything happens, or if anything has to be done . . . 

Olga. Yes, yes, of course. You need not worry. 
[Pause] To-morrow there won't be a single soldier left 
in the town, it will all be a memory, and, of course, 
for us a new life will begin . . . [Pause] None of our 
plans are coming right. I didn't wish to be a head- 
mistress, but they made me one, all the same. It means 
there's no chance to go to Moscow . . . 



84 THE THREE SISTERS 

Vershinin. Well . . . thank you for everything. 
Forgive me if Гѵе . . . Гѵе said such an awful lot — 
forgive me for that, too, don't think badly of me. 

Olga [wipes her eyes] Why isn't Masha coming? . . . 

Vershinin. What else can I say in parting? Can 
I philosophize about anything? [Laughs] Life is heavy. 
To many of us it seems dull and hopeless, but still, it 
must be acknowledged that it is getting lighter and 
clearer, and it seems that the time is not far off when 
it will be quite clear. [Looks at his watch] It's time I 
went! Mankind used to be absorbed in wars, and all 
its existence was filled with campaigns, attacks, defeats. 
Now weVe outlived all that, leaving after us a great 
waste, which we cannot fill at present; but mankind is 
looking for something, and will certainly find it. Oh, 
if it only happened more quickly. [Pause] If only edu- 
cation could be added to industry, and industry to 
education. [Looks at his watch] It's time I went . . . 

Olga. Here she comes. 

[Enter Masha] 

Vershinin. I came to say good-by. . . . 

[Olga steps aside a little, so as not to be in their 
way] 

Masha [looking him in the face] Good-bye . • . 
[She gives him a lingering kiss] 

Olga. Enough! Enough! [Masha breaks into 
tears] 

Vershinin. Write to me . . . Don't forget ! Let 
me go . . . it's time. Take her away, Olga Sergeievna 
it's time . . . I'm late . . . 



• . 



THE THREE SISTERS 85 

[He kisses Olgas hand in evident emotion, then em- 
braces Masha once more and goes out quickly] 

Olga. Don't, Masha! Stop, dear . . . [Kuligin 
enters] 

Kuligin [confused] Never mind, let her cry, let her 
. . . My dear Masha, my good Masha . . . You're my 
wife, and Гт happy, whatever happens . . . Гт not 
complaining, I don't reproach you at all . . . Olga is a 
witness to it . . . Let's begin to live again as we used 
to, and not by a single word, or hint . . . 

Masha [restraining her sobs] 

"A green oak stands by the sea, 

A chain of gold around it . . . 

A chain of gold around it . . . 

Гт going out of my head . . . "a green oak stands . . . 

by the sea" . . . 

Olga. Be quiet, Masha, be quiet! . . . give her 
some water . . . 

Masha. I'm not crying any more. 

Kuligin. She's not crying any more • . . she's 
kindly . . . 

[A shot is heard from a far distance] 

Masha. "A green oak stands by the sea, 
A chain of gold around it . . . 
A green cat — a green oak — 
Гт mixing it up . . . [Drinks some water] Life is dull 
• . . There's nothing more now that I desire ... I'll 
be all right in a moment ... It doesn't matter . . . 
What do these lines mean? Why do they run in my 
head? My thoughts are all tangled. 



86 THE THREE SISTERS 

[Irina enters'] 

Olga. Be quiet, Masha. There's a good girl . . • 
Let's go in. 

Masha [angrily] I shan't go in there. [Sobs, but con- 
trols herself at once] I'm not going into the house, I 
won't . . . 

Irina. Let's sit here together and say nothing. I'm 
going away to-morrow . . . [Pause] 

Kuligin. Yesterday I took these whiskers and this 
beard from a boy in the third class . . . [He puts on 
the whiskers and beard] Don't I look like the German 
master? . . . [Laughs] Don't I? The boys are amus- 
ing. 

Masha. You really do look like that German of 
yours. 

Olga [laughs] Yes. [Masha weeps] 

Irina. Don't, Masha! 

Kuligin. It's a very good likeness . . . 

[Enter Natasha] 

Natasha [to the maid] What? Mikhail Ivanitch 
Protopopoff will sit with little Sophie, and Andrei 
Sergeievitch can take little Bobby out. Children are such 
a bother ... [To Irina] Irina, it's such a pity you're 
going away to-morrow. Do remain another week. [Sees 
Kuligin and screams; he laughs and takes off his beard 
and whiskers] How you frightened me! [To Irina] 
I've grown used to you and do you think it will be easy 
for me to part from you. I'm going to have Andrei 
and his violin put into your room — let him fiddle away 
in there ! — and we'll put little Sophie into his room. 



THE THREE SISTERS 87 

The beautiful, lovely child! What a little girlie! To- 
day she looked at me with such pretty eyes and said 
"Mamma!" 

Kuligin. A beautiful child, it's quite true. 

Natasha. That means I shall have the place to my- 
self to-morrow. [Sighs'] In the first place I shall have 
that avenue of fir-trees cut down, then the maples. It's 
so ugly at night ... [Го Irina] That belt doesn't suit 
you at all, dear . . . It's an error of taste. And I'll give 
orders to have lots and lots of little flowers planted here, 
and they'll smell sweet . . . Why «is that fork lying here 
on the seat? [Going towards the house, to the maid] 
Why is that fork lying on the seat, I say? [Shouts] 
Don't you dare answer me ! 

Kuligin. Temper ! temper ! 

[A march is played off; they all listen] 

Olga. They're going. 

[T chebutikin comes in] 

Masha. They're going. Well, well . . . Bon voy- 
age! [To her husband] We must go home . . . 
Where's my coat and hat? 

Kuligin. I took them in . . . I'll bring them, in a 
moment. 

Olga. Yes, now we can all go home. It's time. 

Tchebutikin. Olga Sergeievna! 

Olga. What is it? [Pause] What is it? 

Tchebutikin. Nothing ... I don't know how to 
tell you . . . [Whispers to her] 

Olga [frightened] It can't be true! 

Tchebutikin. Yes . . . such a story . . . I'm 



88 THE THREE SISTERS 

tired, exhausted, I won't say any more . . . [Sadly] 
Still, it's all the same! 

Masha. What's happened? 

Olga [embraces Irina] This is a terrible day ... I 
don't know how to tell you, dear . . , 

Irina. What is it? Tell me quickly, what is it? 
For God's sake! [Cries'] 

Tchebutikin. The Baron was killed in the duel 
just now. 

Irina [cries softly] I knew it, I knew it . . . 

Tchebutikin [sits on a bench at the back of the 
stage] I'm tired . . . [Takes a paper from his 
pocket] Let 'em cry . . . [Sings softly] "Tarara-boom- 
deay . . ." Isn't it all the same! 

[The three sisters are standing, pressing against one 
another] 

Masha. Oh, how the music plays! They are leav- 
ing us, one has quite left us, quite and for ever. We 
remain alone, to begin our life over again. We must 
live ... we must live . . . 

Irina [puts her head on Olga's breast] There will 
come a time when everybody will know the reason for 
all this suffering, and there will be no more mysteries. 
But we must live ... we must work, just work! To- 
morrow I'll go away alone, and I'll teach and give my 
whole life to those who, perhaps, need it. It's autumn 
now, soon it will be winter, the snow will cover every- 
thing, and I shall be working, working. . . . 

Olga [embraces both her sisters] The bands are play- 
ing so gayly, so bravely, and one does so want to live! 



> 



THE THREE SISTERS 89 

Oh, my God! Time will pass and we shall forever be 
«dead; they will forget our faces, voices, and even how 
many there were of us, but our sufferings will turn into 
joy for those who will live after us, happiness and peace 
will reign on earth, and people will remember with a 
good word and bless those who live now. Oh dear sis- 
ters, our life is not yet at an end. Let us live. The 
music is so gay, so joyful, and, it seems that in a little 
while we shall know why we are living, why we are 
suffering ... If only we knew! if only we knew! 

[The music has been growing softer and softer; 
Kuliginj smiling happily, brings out the hat and coat; 
Andrei wheels out the perambulator in which Bobby У 
sitting] 

Tchebutikin [sings softly] "Тага . . . ra-boom- 
deay . . . [Reads a paper] It's all the same! It's all 
the same! 

Olga. If only we knew! If only we knew! 

CURTAIN 



ШШЯШШЯШШ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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002 332 657 7 



F. Ray Comstock and Morris Gest 

Present 

BALIEFFS CHAUVE-SOURIS 

Century Roof Theatre 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



002 332 657 7 



